


Ichor

by ToxicTraitor



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Blood, Body Horror, Gore, Multi, Surgery, Talk of Murdering People, death mention, medical talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-23 22:21:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 34,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15616272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicTraitor/pseuds/ToxicTraitor
Summary: Shun Kurosaki wakes up in a hospital bed to discover that his blood is now colored golden due to nanobots that have been injected into his system.  Now he’s nearly invincible since the nanobots can heal nearly any would within seconds.  The man behind it, Reiji Akaba threatens to kill Shun’s sister unless Shun goes to kill the rest of Reiji’s experiments including the Faceless Dennis MacField, parasitic vine and human hybrid Yuuri, literally conjoined twins Yuuya and Yuuto Sakaki, and Sora Shiun'in, the boy with a saw in his chest.  It’s just the start of a never ending nightmare for Shun Kurosaki.





	1. Tempt

Shun’s eyes struggle to open.  He can hear the steady rhythm of a cardiac monitor in the room with him.  It echoes, each sound it makes bouncing back off the wall, creating a secondary rhythm to compete with the first.  Shun’s mind vaguely tells him that he must be in a hospital somewhere. His thoughts feel so muddy and heavy that it’s hard to even remember the meaning of the word ‘hospital’.

 

The next thing that Shun notices is the sheer agony that courses through each of his veins as if all the blood in his body had been transmuted into pure, burning acid.  Shun feels like he’s been lit on fire, as if every cell in his body is being burned alive slowly. 

 

His first instinct is to want to scratch at his arms as if he can somehow dull the pain, as if he can somehow make the burning stop.  When he goes to lift his arms up, they stay stuck beside him. It takes a few more tries before Shun realizes that he’s strapped to whatever bed he is laying in.

 

He grunts as he attempts to free himself.  He now notices that he’s completed naked too.  His body is covered in thin lines that look like fading scars.  Where is he and what is happening to him? His mind starts to race with panic as he feverishly tries to break through his bonds.  Nothing he does helps, it’s fruitless to keep trying. His wrists and ankles just feel raw and bruised from all of the struggling.

 

“You’re awake.”  A calm voice echoes quietly.  Even as soft as the voice is, it still sounds too loud in this room.  “That was quicker than I had calculated. Yes, that’s a good sign.”

 

Shun looks up to see a gray-haired man walk in.  His face looks young, but serious. His eyes gleam in the light, putting amethyst to shame with the striking purple hue that his irises possess.  The man wears a small smile on his face, a polite smile that didn’t reveal very much emotion at all. It’s unnerving to say the least.

“You look shocked.  Maybe I should add something into your intravenous drip to calm you down.”  The man sighs. “I’m sure you’re asking yourself a lot of questions right now.  Let me answer a few of them for you.”

 

The man walks closer towards Shun, he reads the monitors as he speaks.  “I am your doctor, Dr. Reiji Akaba. You were in a fatal accident. I took it upon myself to save your life.  That is why you are here, because I am monitoring your vitals to ensure that my practices have worked.

 

What happened to you was… severe.  I was afraid that you wouldn’t pull through it.  There were many moments when I was worried that I had failed you and that I had lost you.  The damage done to your body was incredible. However, I managed to save you with my latest breakthrough.  My nanobots.

 

I injected you with a serum comprised of nanobots suspended in blood plasma.  The nanobots are designed to repair any damage to your body. They work quickly, efficiently, perfectly.  They took you back from Death’s arms and brought you back to life. It will do wonders in the medical market.”

 

Shun tries to speak but the words get caught in his throat.  All he manages to make is a small gurgled sound that sounds halfway between a baby’s laugh and the barking of a dog.

 

“Let me show you.”  Reiji explains further.  

 

He takes one of Shun’s fingers in his hand before he violently bends it backwards.  Shun can feel the bones break. He can’t even yell in shock or in pain, he’s left speechless.  The pain is searing, aching and pulsating as his body tries to cope with the sudden break. Before Shun can recover from the shock of it, the pain subsides into something duller until the pain disappears completely.

 

Shun closes his fist and opens it again, trying to understand what had happened.  It’s as if nothing had happened. His finger feels fine now. It works the same way it always had, if not better.

 

“The nanobots are able to repair damage such as broken bones or torn tissue within seconds.  It can even cure diseases, in theory. It can even replicate organs if one should be removed from the body.”

 

Reiji smiles down at Shun.  “I’ll give you some more time alone.  The nanobots are currently at war with the white blood cells in your system.  After the nanobots have won and replaced your white blood cells, you should be able to function normally.  I’ll answer the rest of your questions then.”

 

Before he leaves, Reiji presses a small button on one of the various machines in the room.  It only takes a few seconds before Shun feels a cooling sensation in his veins, then a few more seconds before he starts to fall asleep.

 

Whatever sleep Shun gets is restless.  In his dreams, if you could call them that, all he saw were dark shadows hanging over him.  He doesn’t feel like he could call this kind of torment sleep. His whole body burns and his head is full of monsters.  It feels like a never ending nightmare. Maybe he had died and gone to Hell. That’s what it felt like, after all. It wouldn’t surprise him at this point.

 

He doesn’t even notice when the pain starts to subside.  His body had felt so much pain that it had started to go numb.  His mind had been filled with so many shadows that even the pitch black dark felt too bright when he opened his eyes again.

 

“Good morning.”  Reiji smiles down at Shun.  His smile looks off, but Shun isn’t able to decide why.  All he can do is stare while his eyes adjust to the lighting. 

 

Reiji presses a few buttons on the machines again, his expression never changes as he reads Shun’s vitals.  He presses a few more before he turns his attention back to Shun.

 

“The worst is over.” Reiji explains as he begins to remove the many needles and monitoring sensors taped to Shun’s exposed skin.  “I’ll need to carry out more tests but I need you to be active for them.”

 

Shun tries to speak but nothing comes out.  His throat feels dry, it hurts to try to talk.

 

“I’m guessing some water is in order first.” Reiji notices.

 

He hands Shun a hospital gown to dress himself in.  Shun slips it on, almost embarrassed by his nudity. This was a doctor, he shouldn’t feel ashamed but he can’t help but feel awkward about being completely exposed.  The fabric is so thin but somehow still stiff. It feels more like paper rather than actual clothing.

 

He follows Reiji out the door and down a dim hallway.  All the other doors are closed, Shun just assumes that behind each door must be another patient.  Shun wonders what they’re all going through. After his experience, he can’t imagine what they must be feeling.  

 

He follows Reiji half-heartedly, he isn’t too eager to be out of bed, not after all the pain he had experienced.  His legs feel rubbery, no longer used to standing or walking. Trying to take each step takes more concentration than Shun is comfortable with. 

 

They eventually end up at a kitchen, a strange sight for a hospital.  Shun would assume that there would be a break room rather than a full kitchen with a stove and oven.  He doesn’t question it too much, he becomes distracted too easily when he spots the glass of water in Reiji’s hand.

 

“Here, drink up.” Reiji says as he hands the glass to Shun.  “Then we can have a long overdue chat.”

 

Shun takes a gulp of the water.  It’s nice and cool, refreshing for his dry throat.  He drinks the whole glass before he realizes it. Reiji pours him another one, which Shun happily takes a few more slower sips from.

 

“The process of healing you took longer than I had anticipated.”  Reiji begins. “It’s been several weeks since your accident.”

 

“What happened to me?”  Shun finally gets to ask.  His voice sounds gravelly and hoarse.  Shun frowns at the sound of it, drinking up more water to drown the sound away.

 

“An accident, it was very brutal.  They thought that you wouldn’t make it.  To be fair, you didn’t.” Reiji explains.  “You died. It sounds so harsh to say, doesn’t it?  You died on the operating table.”

 

“Then how come I’m alive now?”  Shun wonders, still cringing at the sound of his voice.

 

“The other doctors, even the entire medical board, do not believe in my practices.  I had to steal you away from the hospital and bring you to my personal clinic. I couldn’t allow them to let a patient die when I know I am capable of saving them.  I brought you here and brought you back to life.”

 

Shun looks around at the kitchen again.  It makes more sense that this would be a private clinic rather than a hospital.  Shun hasn’t seen anyone else around, no doctors or other patients. It is just him and Reiji.  He doesn’t even think that there are nurses around. Reiji must handle everything on his own, from the medical procedures to food preparation and even cleaning.

 

“My late father’s research led him to begin the creation of nanobots.  They’re extremely small robots, capable of repairing damaged tissue and fighting off infections.  They’re in a lot of ways, an improved version of your body’s natural antibodies. 

 

You can’t even see them with the naked eye and yet they are more capable of handling tasks than most doctors.  They are capable of fixing small tears in the tissue that doctors cannot repair. They are capable of miniculse tasks that are too small for doctors to even dream of fixing.  These nanobots are able to finesse the art of medicine.

 

These are what healed you.  They repaired the tissue damage, they repaired your organs which had gone into failure.  Your brain itself had extensive damage and yet… You are able to walk and to talk. You’re good as new, better even.” 

 

“I don’t remember my name.”  Shun admits. He isn’t sure if his brain is still high off of medication or if something worse was at hand.

 

“Mmm…”  Reiji sighs, he rubs at his chin while he contemplates what to say.  “It seems that perhaps the nanobots aren’t able to cure amnesia. You did have massive head trauma.  That could lead to memory loss, even with the nanobots doing their best. It should, hopefully, return in time.”

 

“Return in time?”  Shun echos.

 

“Yes, hopefully.”

 

“Hopefully?  So I might never know who I am?  That’s great!” Shun sighs in frustration.  “I don’t know where I even live.”

 

“It doesn’t matter.  You’ll be staying here until you’ve recovered completely.”

 

“What about my life?”  Shun continues. “Do I have a family?  Do I have a job? Do you even know what my name is?”

 

“Unfortunately, I can’t answer those question.  I’ve been referring to you as “Five”.”

 

“Five?”

 

“You’re my fifth patient.”

 

Shun frowns.  The fifth? That didn’t sound comforting at all.  Maybe this man had knocked him out and kidnapped him, for all he knew.  After all, what kind of ‘great and wonderful’ doctor only had five patients in his entire career?  The kind that ‘worked’ in a back alley that operated on the type of people that borrow money from bad people.

 

It makes Shun wonder what he has done wrong to get here.  An accident could range from anything, a car accident to tripping on a sidewalk.  For all Shun knew, which he knew very little, he had been murdered before he ended up in this ‘doctor’s’ hands.

 

“Allow me to clarify.  I’m a doctor, yes, that much is true.  I’m also a researcher. My research has given me an extremely poor reputation, despite my breakthroughs and despite my genius.  I am not legally allowed to practise this kind of research or this kind of medicine on anyone, however science is science. Science has always had its flaws and bumps in the road.  If you want to see results, sometimes you have to do things that society would never accept.

 

I know it sounds odd to you.  It may sound inhumane but humans have been doing this since the dawn of our time.  The only reason we have modern medicine is because doctors were brave enough to know when to not let society stop them from finding the truth.”

 

“What did you do to me, then?  If your research is so controversial, then what did you do to me?”  Shun demands. He’s getting angry now. He doesn’t know who he is or what happened to him.  Now this so called “Doctor” wanted to play games with him. He isn’t some kind of lab rat to test on.

 

“I told you what I’ve done to you.  I simply saved your life. You should be grateful.”

 

“It sounds like you made me your guinea pig.”

 

“In some ways, you are an experiment.”  Reiji smiles slightly. It’s so unnerving that Shun takes a step back to put more space between them.  “You’re my fifth experiment, my most successful one. I assure you, Five… I only want to help you and help the whole world.  I saved your life so you could help me save millions more.”

 

Shun shakes his head.  “I don’t even know you.”

 

“You don’t, but don’t you want to know  _ you _ .”  Reiji coaxes.  “I have all your information hidden away.  Your name, age, where you live… I even have information about your family.  Don’t you think that they miss you? Don’t you want to go home to them? I’ll show you everything if, and only if, you help me.”

 

“What do you want me to do?”  Shun asks hesitantly.

 

“You’re my fifth experiment.  That means that before you, I have four others.  Unfortunately, they are all failed experiments. They’ve escaped before I had the chance to… fix them…  I need you to track them down.”

 

“What do you want me to do when I find them?”  Shun wonders.

 

“Euthanize them.”

 

Reiji says the words so calmly and simply, there’s no remorse in his tone or in his expression.  Shun puts a hand to his head, feeling the agonizing pain echoing through his skull again. It reverberates throughout the inner walls of it, making it hard to think.

 

“I understand that the words sound harsh.”  Reiji explains. “My previous experiments are no longer what I could even begin to classify as ‘human’.  They’re closer to monstrosities. If you saw them, it would be hard to swallow what you saw.”

 

“What did you do to them that made them so monstrous?”  Shun questions, his head still pounding. It’s becoming hard to think.

 

“In my attempts at pushing the limit of the human body, I may have played God too well.  I’ve done things to them that are far beyond the expectations any human can ever hope to begin to comprehend.  I cannot allow you to see them until you’ve agree to kill them for me.”

 

“What makes you think that I can kill them?”  Shun challenges. 

 

He can just leave.  The door is right there, not even ten feet away.  He didn’t have to except this wicked deal. Memory or no memory, he’d rather live alone than live with the guilt of committing murder.

 

“Your body is superhuman.  It’s nearly indestructible.  You are the only one that can kill them, the only person alive on Earth that can survive what they are capable of.”

 

“As if that kind of thing matters to me.  I was dead… what… a week ago? Five days ago?  Do you think I care whether or not I live or die at this point?”  Shun questions. “I don’t even know who I am. What do I have to live for?”

 

“Maybe you don’t care about yourself, but I have something you don’t have.”  Reiji’s eyes glimmer with the threats he’s been hiding. “You don’t even know who you are.  I have everything you need to know. Your name, your home… Your family… It would be such a shame if I hurt your family, now wouldn’t it?”

 

Shun doesn’t even know who his family is anymore.  For all he knew, he had none. Reiji seems to realize where his train of thought is heading because he quickly speaks up again.

 

“You don’t have much family.”  Reiji begins. “Not at all, you’re an orphan.  No mother, no father or anyone to take care of you.  You do, however, have someone to look after. A younger sister.”

 

That strikes a chord somewhere in Shun’s mind and heart.  He can almost envision her. All he sees is a shapeless form, no eyes or voice to know who it was, it was just a cloud with the slightest hint of familiarity.  A warmth… a comforting feeling… 

 

“You can remember her, can’t you?  A younger sister, a girl named Ruri.  She’s a smart girl, pretty too. I can assure you that she must miss you more than anything.  You’re all she has. Now she thinks you’re gone. Can you imagine that feeling? That feeling of losing someone you love?”

 

“Ruri…”  Shun mumbles to himself.  

 

The shapeless form begins to take shape, molding itself into the shape of a young women.  There’s still nothing distinct, just that warm feeling in his heart.

 

“I can make things very bad for her.”  Reiji threatens. “What is the difference to you?  Kill four people... and I’ll keep one alive. In the end, you aren’t even killing human beings.  You don’t need to feel guilty or wrong for it. They’re more like animals that need to be put down.  That’s all I need you to do for me.”

 

Shun’s head is pounding even louder.  His veins are burning. He doesn’t even know the girl that Reiji spoke of.  His head doesn’t know her, but his heart knows her. Ruri… The name echoes in his head along with each pounding beat.  He can’t let her get hurt.

 

“I’ll do what you want.”  Shun promises. “I have my conditions though.”

 

Reiji’s reply is a smirk and the questioning raise of an eyebrow.

 

“Don’t hurt my sister.”  Shun begins. “Or any family that I have.”

 

“I assume you also want to know who you are as well?”

 

Shun nods.  “My name and home, like you promised.”

 

“It’s a deal.  I’ll give you three days to finish my tasks.  If you haven’t completed the tasks by then, I’ll pay your sister a little visit.”

 

“Wait.”  Shun stops.  “I want one more thing.  After all of this is done, I want you to never speak to me again.  I don’t want to hear from you or to see you. After I know my name and where I live, I want you to leave me alone.”

 

“I can arrange that.”  Reiji promises.

 

Reiji smiles and holds out his hand for Shun to shake.  Shun takes it, hesitantly. This ‘Doctor’ seems more like a mad scientist rather than a medical physician.  Shun isn’t sure whether or not making a deal with him is a smart move but it’s the only move he feels like he can take.  Ruri could be a made up person for all Shun knew, but that tugging in his heart tells him to protect her at all costs. He doesn’t have a choice but to do whatever Reiji asks of him.

 

Reiji ends up leading him to another room, one with a small office setup.  There’s a desk with several computer screens stacked onto it, file cabinets lined across the back wall and bookshelves overflowing with thick books.  Reiji unlocks a small safe hidden behind a few books, which he then pulls out four thin files from and places onto the desk.

 

“These are your targets.  I’ll give you three days starting from tomorrow evening.  I’m keeping you under observation until then. I need to make sure that you won’t start to fall apart again when you’re out there.”

 

“Fall apart again?”  Shun repeats, concerned.

 

“Oh, I didn’t tell you?  You were in pieces when you arrived to me.  I had to stitch you back together. The nanobots really did well, you can’t even see the seams.  You looked like you came back from a butcher shop. It kind of made me hungry, actually. I think I still have some leftover pot roast in the refrigerator.  You’re welcome to it if you think your stomach can handle the food.”

 

If there were anything other than water in his stomach, Shun would have thrown it all up.  He can’t even begin to think of eating anymore. He had been hungry since he drank all of that water but now it feels like his stomach has shriveled up to the size of a raisin after hearing that.

 

“Go get some rest.  There’s a room down the hall, the last one to the left, you can sleep there.  Don’t venture into the other medical rooms, I don’t want you to disturb any of my work.  You may be indestructible but remember, I can kill you if I wanted to.”

 

“How?  How could you kill me?”  Shun asks. “Shouldn’t I know how I can die if I’m going up against these monsters you’re sending me after?”

 

“Well, among the few things that can kill you are suffocation.  Just remember that, you’ll be glad you asked. The nanobots can only work with what you give them.  If they have no oxygen, they cannot save your body. That and if your heart stops beating. That of course, can kill you too”  Reiji explains.

 

“That seems like an important detail to forget to tell me.”  Shun huffs.

 

“Don’t worry.”  Reiji assures. “If you die from suffocation then you’ll be better off dead.  What my fourth experiment can do to you will be much worse than being choked to death.”

 

Shun opens his mouth to question Reiji more but Reiji stops him by holding up a single hand.

 

“My experiments are not games.  They have the power to kill you if they wanted to.  Your body is simply built to withstand most of what they throw at you.  You have to use your brain to make the right decisions. Now go rest. If you’re tired then you’ll be an easy target.”

 

Shun obeys, walking away quietly despite the noise in his head.  He doesn’t know how he died… Massive head trauma or was it something even worse?  He doesn’t want to think about it but it’s all he can focus on while he tries to sleep.  His body gives him no clues when he tries to examine it in the bathroom mirror. There’s no scarring, no bruising, nothing to hint at any trauma.  All he has to go on is the amnesia that fogged his brain.

 

In the end, he gets next to no sleep.  The hours tick by, merging into one another until Shun doesn’t know how long he’s been laying there.  When the sunlight starts to shine through the curtain covered windows, he gets up and gets dressed. 

 

He walks out into the hallway, wondering where the doctor might be.  Does he sleep here or does he have a home away from his office? Shun stands there quietly puzzled about what to do next.  His stomach asks for food, not having had any in who knows how long. He ends up in the kitchen, nibbling at a piece of toast while he tries to avoid the pot roast.  He feels full after a few bites, his stomach suddenly changing its mind about food. 

 

It’s then that he notices a note on the table.  It’s addressed to him. Well, at least it’s addressed to ‘Five’.

 

It reads out a simple list of instructions, telling him to read over the files as soon as possible and that there were keys to a car somewhere in the office next to the computer.  Shun grimaces, remembering that he had no driver’s license. He couldn’t afford to get caught without one now. Since he couldn’t even remember his own name, he doubts a cop would listen to his story.

 

The subject of a police officer leads Shun to question whether a blow to his head could kill him if someone shot him point-blank in between his eyes.  Reiji mentioned that a lack of oxygen could kill him. He also mentioned that if his heart stopped beating, it would spell the end of his life too.

 

Either way, whether or not he could live or die at the receiving end of a gun, Shun didn’t want to have to find out the hard way what a bullet could do to him.  

 

Shun eventually wanders into the office to look for the keys to the car that Reiji is lending him.  He turns to the desk first, since the computers sat there, but his eyes don’t fall on the keys first.  There’s a gun on the desk along with some ammunition, a knife, and what looks like another note.

 

This time it clearly reads out in neat print the word ‘gifts’.  Shun frowns as he picks up the weapons. They both feel sturdy, strong and smooth.  It would be easy to use them if Shun didn’t have to think about what he had to use them for.  The knife itself looks like it would make cooking so much easier but instead Shun will probably have to bury it into someone’s chest.

 

He can’t believe that he’s really going to do this.


	2. Escape

Shun packs up a few clothes, all of which must be Reiji’s.  They both fit in the same size of clothing, although the style that Reiji wore grated on Shun’s nerves a little.  Who still wore argyle sweaters, honestly? He grabs a few food items and water bottles, which he throws into a bag that he finds in Reiji’s office.  He figures he has free range of the place, so he might as well take whatever he wants or needs.

 

All that’s left is to go through the files of the ‘experiments’ as Reiji called them.  The word sounds gross in the context. Humans turned into monsters… What kind of sicko spent his life doing this kind of thing to people?  What kind of sicko sent someone to kill his former patients? Maybe Shun himself is the sicko, considering the fact that he is going out to kill those former patients.

 

Shun opens up the first file for Experiment One.  Inside is a picture of a young man with bright red hair curled in ringlets around his face.  Shun guesses that he’s handsome, at least to some. His face is nicely chiseled, clean and smooth.  Shun can’t guess what could be so wrong with someone like him.

 

“Dennis Macfield.”  Shun repeats the name that is neatly handwritten under his picture.  “Plastic surgery to enhance cheekbones, and to reduce fine lines and wrinkles.”

 

Shun doesn’t see anything wrong with the man in the picture other than the cheesy smile.  Maybe this was the after picture? Shun couldn’t be sure. He can’t understand how cosmetic surgery could turn someone into a real life monster.  

 

He tries to scan for anything else that could be important.  There’s a sticky note attached to one page. “Last known residence: The Theatre of Fine Acting of Maiami City.  Guess I’m heading there tonight.” Shun mumbles to himself.

 

Shun heads down a few flights of stairs to a nearly empty parking garage.  Whatever building this is, it is definitely deserted. Shun doesn’t see a single person or car.  There isn’t even security waiting around any corner or making any rounds. It’s completely lonely.

 

The sound of the engine starting is startling at best.  It had been quiet all day and this parking garage is dead silent.  The sound of the roaring engine doesn’t just break the silence, it shatters it completely.

 

There’s a quiet ‘ding’ as the GPS turns itself on.  A computer generated voice begins speaking, a feminine and friendly tone begins to speak.

 

“What’s your destination?”  She asks, bright and chipper.

 

“The Theatre of Fine Acting of Maiami City.”  Shun answers after the momentary shock subsides.

 

“Calculating directions.”  The voice chirps. A happy, summery tune begins to play in place of her voice for a few seconds before she speaks again.  “Your destination is 20 minutes away.”

 

“Can you keep a lookout for any cops?”  Shun asks, half-jokingly. He doesn’t expect that the GPS has that kind of feature built into its system.

 

“Calculating for routes avoiding traffic police.”  She begins again. “New route found, destination is now 25 minutes away.”

 

Shun leans back in the driver’s seat, a little shocked.  He doesn’t know if Reiji installed this kind of system or if it were normal to have this kind of thing.  He just hopes that the GPS isn’t lying to him.

 

He follows her directions.  Her happy voice cheerfully tells him when to turn and updates him about the traffic ahead.  Shun wondered if the GPS could somehow understand that she is leading him to kill a man, if she would try to stop him.  

 

He ends up outside what looks like an abandoned building.  There’s no cars, no people, not even a bird chirping outside the walls.  Shun has to double check the address to be sure that he’s in the right place.  When the addresses match up, Shun scratches his head.

 

He gets out of the car, looking for a way in.  The building is surrounded by fencing, built up high with barbed wire decorating the top of it.  Shun does a quick walk around the building but there’s no way in, the only door is locked with a thick chain that Shun doubts he’ll be able to get off.

 

He can try to climb up and over the fence.  Of course, that might hurt him. He is supposed to be able to heal so what did it matter?  Even if he can heal, that didn’t mean that Shun was keen on hurting himself. That is based on the assumption that he can heal from this, if he doesn’t then he’ll just end up cutting up his hands.

 

He pulls down his sleeves to cover his hands, deciding that maybe he could avoid the spikes completely this way.  He hoists himself up onto the fence, climbing up until he reaches the top. When he grabs onto the barbed wire, he can feel it cutting into him.  He bites back an agonized yelp, pulling himself up despite the pain.

 

His hands sting, an unpleasant reminder that barbed wire usually means ‘no entry’.  He should have listened to the warning like a normal person. Instead, he continues climbing, scratching up his legs as he throws them over to the other side of the fence.  He hops down, biting back a string of angry curse words.

 

He stares at his hands, trying to make sense of his fresh wounds.  The most shocking thing isn’t the torn up flesh, but rather the hue of his blood.  His blood looked almost golden, metallic and shiny. It shines like a dulled mirror, casting moonlight onto Shun’s face.

 

The nanobots, a tiny robotic army now live in his blood.  They changed the color of it, hiding the bright red behind their metallic bodies.  His blood doesn’t look human anymore, it looks like molten gold.

 

Shun’s confusion captivates his attention so well that he doesn’t even notice as the wounds on his hands begin to heal.  The wounds begin to close up, fading away into pink scars and then into nothing at all. The pain begins to subside too, leaving Shun better than before.

 

Shun blinks, trying to shake off his stupor.  So what if his blood is suddenly the color of ichor?  That doesn’t mean anything, does it? He swears that this must be some kind of messed up dream that he’s going to wake up from.  He knows in his heart that it isn’t a dream, but he’s hoping and praying to any God that will listen to him that this is a nightmare.

 

He takes a deep breath and sets off to find the entrance into the building.  It’s not hard to find the front door but it’s boarded shut. He tries to pry off the obstacles but they don’t budge more than the width of a strand of hair.  Whoever boarded it up, wanted it to stay shut forever.

 

Shun wanders around to the back.  He finds another door, one that’s not locked.  In fact, it’s slightly ajar. Shun glances around for any people that might be watching before he opens it.  It creaks lazily which makes Shun cringe. If anyone happens to be around, they definitely heard that.

 

Shun doesn’t know how to play this out.  He could try to call out and wait for an answer or he could stay silent.  He doesn’t know anything about this Dennis guy. Does Dennis know that he is on someone’s hit list or is he blissfully unaware?  If Dennis were such a monster, will he react like a human being or like an animal? Shun has so many questions. 

 

He walks through the door, trying to make sense of his surroundings.  It’s a back door, leading to the set up behind the stage. There’s old props piled up everywhere, covered in dust and grime.  It looks so desolate, much like everywhere else that Shun has been lately.

 

He walks around, finding no clues and no leads.  Maybe Dennis has the better sense to leave to find a better hiding spot than this.  Shun continues to walk around, ending up in the audience’s seating area. The chairs are all covered in mold and the carpeted flooring is peeling off in some places.

 

Shun stands there quietly, his hands in his pockets.  He looks out at the seating, trying to decide his next move.  If Dennis isn’t here, then he doubts that he’ll ever find him.

 

Shun hears it before he sees it, a quiet but noticeable click followed by a blinding light shining behind him.  Shun whirls around, catching glimpse of a man standing with his arms out wide on the stage. The stage lights shine behind him so brightly that Shun can’t see his face.

 

Once Shun does see his face, however, Shun wishes he never did.

 

The man on stage has bright, red and curly hair.  Shun recognizes it from Dennis’ picture so it can’t be anyone other than him.  He’s well dressed, especially for the decrepit state this place is in. Dennis steps forward, his face finally shadowed enough for Shun to see him.

 

Shun feels so glad that his stomach feels as if it dropped to his feet.  All he wants to do is gag, if he could still feel his stomach then he would have.  He has to swallow hard, his throat feels so dry that it makes him choke a little.

 

Dennis’ face is so smooth, so pure that it’s doll like.  His skin looks like the kind of flawless that could only be achieved through careful airbrushing.  The only problem is that… it’s too smooth. There’s nothing on his face, no imperfections, no eyes, no nose or lips.  His face is like a blank canvas, there’s nothing there.

 

Dennis bows at Shun, somehow still being able to sense his presence.  When Dennis stands straight again, he runs a finger down the side of his cheek as if he were mimicking a tear.  He then buries his face, if you could call it that, in his hands like he is sobbing.

 

Shun can’t stomach it anymore.  He didn’t expect this. When he heard the word ‘monster’ he imagined someone deadly and evil.  This man on the stage is pitiful. If he were a monster, then the only trait he shared with a monster would be how frightening he was to lay eyes on.

 

Shun leaves, he breaks down the front door, kicking hard enough for those dreadful boards to snap in half.  He can’t kill this man, not today and not like this. His hands shake uncontrollably as he runs out the front door to the car.  He swears that he can hear some awful, garbled sobbing as he’s leaving. What had Reiji done to this man?


	3. Maul

Shun manages to drive a few blocks away before he has to pull over.  His hands and legs shake so much that he only makes it a few steps before he throws up on the sidewalk.  He stands, shaking and traumatized for a few moments before he tries to shake himself off. 

 

He sits in the car again, pulling out the files to look over.  He tosses Dennis’ file to the back seats, too sick to look at it again.  He has to take a deep breath before he can continue. He flips open the next file and it’s for a man named Yuuri at the Maiami City Observatory.  He sets the new coordinates and sets off to find the next “monster”.

 

The Observatory is closed down, something Shun shouldn’t find shocking at this point.  After meeting Dennis, Shun wonders if these places closed down because of the monsters they have lurking within them or if it these monsters moved in because there is no one around to bother them.

 

Getting into the Observatory is easier than he had anticipated.  The door has a simple lock on it that is held on with a latch. Shun uses the knife he has to unscrew the screws and he’s in.  It seems like a dumb move on whoever is incharge of this place to make it so easy to break it, but maybe no one dared to come here in the first place.

 

The Observatory is crawling with vines of plants.  It looks more like a greenhouse rather than anything else.  The moonlight filters through the glass roof, flooding into the building to bathe the plants in its cold glow.  Shun’s eyes adjust, settling on the only other person in the room. 

 

The other man in the room matches the picture in the file that Shun had looked at.  He sits on the edge of a broken fountain, his feet dangling off the side of it. 

 

“Yuuri?”  Shun asks.

 

“Did the “Good Doctor” send you?”  Yuuri asks, his voice is so close to a purr that Shun feels reminded of a cat or of a snake.

 

“Reiji?”  Shun wonders.  “He did.”

 

“Did he tell you that I’m a monster?  Isn’t that funny? I guess it takes one to know one.”  Yuuri chuckles. His eyes lift up to meet Shun’s, they’re a shade of magenta that puts orchid petals to shame.  “Tell me, what did he do to you?”

 

“That doesn’t matter.”  Shun argues. “I’m here for you right now.”

 

“Reiji wants you to kill me.  I know, he’s tried before. First he sent the twins, have you meant them?  Just wait, you’ll lose your faith in God when you meet them. Then… well it was he pretty little assistant.  Poor thing, really. I don’t think he’s all there.” Yuuri taps his temple. “You have to be a little crazy to work with Reiji.”

 

Shun hasn’t bothered to look through the rest of the files.  He’s not looking forward to it at all. Yuuri looks normal, at least.  Then again, Shun feels like he looks normal but he’s far from it.

 

Yuuri narrows his eyes at Shun.  “Your skin looks like it’s glowing.  If you tell me what Reiji did to you, I’ll tell you what he did to me.”

 

“Nanobots.”  Shun shrugs. “He filled my blood with them.”

 

Yuuri nods.  “He mentioned he was working on those when I met him.”  Yuuri chuckles again, cold and hard. “You could say that he sprouted something in me.  Something venomous, twisted and wicked.” 

 

Yuuri licks his lips.  He’s quiet for a moment. 

 

“That’s not an answer.”  Shun argues.

 

“Reiji wanted to see if he could make a plant and human hybrid.  He infused a parasitic weed into my brain and it grew throughout all my veins.”

 

Yuuri lifts his arm up, pulling the sleeve down to reveal his skin.  The moonlight makes it hard to see but Shun can just make out the tendrils of vines that grew beneath Yuuri’s skin.  They grew in the place of his veins, snaking beneath the skin like angry serpents. The parts of his skin where the vines grew most prominent were bruised a eminence shade of purple.

 

“I’ve thought about trying to get it removed but it has fused with my spine and brain.  I couldn’t remove it without dying.” Yuuri explains further. He sighs, closing his eyes lazily.  “I can control it, it’s a part of me now. I’ve grown to love it. I guess you could say that it grew on me.”

 

Shun doesn’t laugh at Yuuri’s lame attempt at a joke.  It doesn’t sound funny, it sounds ominous. 

 

“What did he offer you, anyway?”  Yuuri asks. “Dennis, oh sweet Dennis, Reiji offered him a flawless look.  Have you met him? Judging from how sick you look, you must have.”

 

“Flawless?  That word sounds so ironic once you’ve seen him.”  Shun spits.

 

“I’ve known Dennis for many years.  He and I… you could say that we were lovers.  Not many have touched my heart the way Dennis has.  That was before Reiji got to him of course.” Yuuri’s tone sounds so bitter that even Shun can taste it on the back of his tongue.  “Dennis was an actor, he wasn’t very famous and he blamed himself for it. He thought that if he got plastic surgery to fix his flaws that he would be admired by all.  Instead, he became feared by all.

 

I loved him, even after what Reiji did to him.  I stuck by him, I tried to be there for him, but Dennis suffers from the scars of his experience.  He knows that he’s a monster, so he pushed me away.”

 

“Then why did you go to Reiji?”  Shun wonders.

 

“For Dennis, of course.”  Yuuri laughs, his voice empty of emotion.  “I’m not really right in the head, at least that’s what everyone thinks of me.  They’ve called me psychotic, a lunatic, an animal… I thought about killing Reiji for what he did.  I guess people were right about me, you’d have to be crazy to think you’d could kill that man.

 

“He stopped me before I had a chance.  He planted his little experiment in me and turned me into a monster, just like Dennis.  He isn’t finished with me yet, that’s why he sent the others and you. He’s not afraid of what we will do to others, but of what we would do to him.”

 

“Why should I believe you?”  Shun questions. 

 

Shun is wavering, his resolve is fading.  He wants to believe that he’s doing the right thing by killing Yuuri.  He wants to believe that Reiji will tell him the truth about who he is and about his sister.

 

“If you look deep inside yourself, you’ll know the truth.  Ask yourself, do you think that Reiji is a good man?” Yuuri questions back.  

 

Shun can’t find that answer.

 

“I don’t care if you’re here to kill me.”  Yuuri sighs, he slips to the floor, landing on his feet.  “Let me kill Reiji first, then you can do whatever you want to me.”

 

Shun holds up his knife.  It seems like such a poor weapon choice now that he was alone in this observatory with another monster.  The gun would have been a better choice, even if it were louder and would call attention to him.

 

“I made a deal with Reiji.”  Shun explains. “It’s your life for mine.  I have to kill you if I want to know who I am.”

 

“You don’t even remember who you are?”  Yuuri laughs. “What a joke.”

 

Yuuri smiles wickedly at Shun.  He raises his hand, vines sprout from his palms upwards into the air above them.  He doesn’t waste a moment to catch his breath before he uses it to whip the knife from Shun’s hand.

 

Shun’s hand burns from the blow.  Yuuri’s vines are covered in thorns which have eaten wounds into Shun’s skin.  

 

“You’re bleeding gold!”  Yuuri laughs sinisterly. “Let me see more of it.”

 

Yuuri whips Shun again, aiming for Shun’s face.  The sting of the hit hurts much worse this time, the thorns scratching into Shun’s eyes.  He’s blinded for a moment, stumbling towards the direction that he had dropped the knife.

 

He drops to his knees, trying desperately to find the knife to defend himself.  The nanobots are trying to work, trying to heal Shun’s eyes and vision. It takes a few short moments before Shun’s eyesight clears enough for him to catch the reflection of light in the blade of his knife.  He reaches for it, grabbing into the sharpest end. He ignores the pain, fighting against it to take the blade and slice through one of Yuuri’s tentacle vines.

 

Yuuri yelps in pain, his vine dropping to the floor before it curls up towards him.  “You dare to cut me?” Yuuri hisses.

 

“You whipped me, it’s a fair trade.”  Shun spits back. He stands, wiping the blood from his eyes.  Unlike him, Yuuri’s wounds wouldn’t heal so easily.

 

Yuuri shakes.  Whether it’s from anger or pain, Shun doesn’t know.  Yuuri steps back, holding his tentacle vine to his chest.  “I’ll get you for that.”

 

Yuuri’s other vine flys out to wrap around Shun’s throat.  It squeezes so tight that Shun can’t breathe. His veins burn as much as they did when he first woke up in this nightmare.  It’s as if the nanobots in his blood are panicking at the lack of oxygen they were suddenly missing.

 

Shun’s hands try desperately to try to pry Yuuri’s tentacle from his neck so that he could breathe.  Yuuri’s grip only tightens the more that Shun fights. Shun’s mind starts to slip into a dazed terror, remembering that a lack of oxygen is his death sentence.

 

Shun’s grabs at the tentacle and pulls against it as hard as he can.  He hears a loud ripping before total silence. The vine around his neck finally loosens before it falls to the floor, limp and lifeless.

 

Shun looks up at Yuuri, confused by the lack of oxygen.  Yuuri stares back in shock, his whole face is turned white.

 

“You… ripped… it from my body.”  Yuuri mumbles, his voice weak.

 

Shun’s eyes manage to focus on the bloody mess that Yuuri had become.  Blood drips from Yuuri’s palm where the vine had once sprouted. Shun stares, shock overcoming him now too.  He had torn the vine from Yuuri’s body.

 

Yuuri drops to his knees, the pain overwhelming him.  “Kill me, then. Get it over with.” He growls in anger.  “Just kill me.”

 

Shun swallows back the lump in his throat.  He picks up the knife and closes the space between them.  His hands shake so much that he loses grip of the knife, it clatters to the floor and splashes drops of blood against them both.

 

“You’re a coward.”  Yuuri mutters.

 

“I can’t kill you.”  Shun shakes his head.  “Not until I know the truth about Reiji.”

 

“The truth is right in front of your eyes.  It’s in your blood. You know the true monster here is Reiji.”  Yuuri whispers angrily. He sounds like he’s close to tears.

 

“Then… when the time comes… I’ll come back for you and we can kill him together.”


	4. Perseverance

When Shun returns to his parked car, he needs a moment to collect himself.  His throat, although healed, burned with the memory of what had happened. He needs time to think and to find the strength to move on to the next target on his list.

 

The new file he pulls out lists two names instead of one.  Yuuya and Yuuto Sakaki, twins from the sound of it. Their address is in an apartment building halfway across town.  Shun sets the coordinates and starts the drive.

 

The roads are quiet, it is nearly three in the morning.  Even the drunken club goers have gone home to pass out by now.  

 

Shun taps the steering wheel with his fingertips, feeling uneasy.  His head keeps repeating Yuuri’s questions and Yuuri’s accusations against Reiji.

 

Shun knows neither of them, at least not that he could remember.  He has no reason to trust either one of them. All he has is a better reason to side with Reiji, since Reiji has answers to Shun’s missing identity and to his family.  Whether or not Reiji is a monster himself, he is the closest that Shun has to even knowing his own name and finding his way back home.

 

The apartment building he ends up at is, of course, abandoned.  The only thing that made this place different from the last two is that there’s a few people around.  It’s mostly a few people asleep at a nearby bus stop that Shun doubted saw any buses at all anymore.

 

Shun avoids those people, not wanting to call attention to himself.  After all, he was here to murder a monster not to make friends. He sneaks past them, finding a broken window around the back of the apartment building which he climbs into.  The glass is so brittle that it shatters to the floor wherever he touches it, rather than cut him.

 

Now that he’s in the building, he just has to find the twins he saw in the file.  He finds his way to the main hallway of the building, a dismal sight to see. The paint on the walls has faded and chipped, leaving a patchy background for the mold to grow in splotches over it.

 

There’s an elevator shaft, one missing the elevator itself.  Shun wonders where it could have ended up. Was there an accident with it or did it just stop working altogether so someone sold it as scraps for a quick chunk of cash?  Either way, even if it were still here, Shun wouldn’t risk using it. His body can handle nearly being ripped apart by twisting vines but he isn’t sure how his body would react to being crushed inside an elevator.

 

He takes the stairs after he finds them hiding behind a broken doorway.  The stairs are beginning to crumble but he manages to climb them without much trouble.  He has to skip a stair or two every so often to avoid the more hazardous spots, but he makes it up without slipping.

 

The next floor isn’t even much of a floor.  It’s given out, probably becoming apart of the rubble below.  Shun decides to climb to the next floor which is in much better shape.  He hesitates to step out onto the floor at first but it holds his weight well so he continues his search without much worry.

 

The search for the twins is proving harder than the last two searches have gone.  The theatre and the observatory had been easy to search around in. Aside from a few smaller rooms, they both have a wide, open area that made it easy to find his target in.  This apartment is made up of nothing but small rooms, Shun is starting to worry that he’ll have to search each and every one.

 

Eventually, he ends up at what seems like the only door that isn’t in tattered condition.  He tries to turn the knob and open the door but it’s stuck. He has to slam his shoulder into the door to get it to budge.

 

The room he enters is so much different from the rest of the building.  There’s a sense of life in this room. There’s electricity somehow, despite the fact that the main source must have been shut off years ago.  There’s a couch and a coffee table with a stack of books on top of it. There’s even a glass of water with ice cubes still floating around inside of it.

 

If there’s ice, then his target has to be close by.  The thought of it sends ice down Shun’s spine. Shun feels like the glass on the table, chilled to his core with sweat dripping down his back.  He’s not alone in this apartment room. 

 

He thinks about Dennis and Yuuri.  Dennis had been horrifying and Yuuri had somehow been worse.  Even then… Yuuri had told him that meeting the twins would make him lose all his faith in God.  Shun doesn’t know what to expect of this new monster. All he knows is that he’s afraid to find out more.

 

“Did Reiji send you?”  A voice asks behind him.

 

Shun whirls around, stepping back to defend himself.  His hand reaches for his pocket, ready to pull out the gun he has waiting in it.

 

“Please, don’t be afraid.”  The voice pleads.

 

Shun stares, all the blood drained from his face.  The man in front of him, if you could call him that, is definitely the most frightening monster that he has met.  It takes Shun a moment to fully comprehend what is standing in front of him. He blinks, hoping that he’ll open his eyes again and that everything will go back to normal. 

 

Shun wondered why Reiji called him ‘Five’ when there had already been five monsters in the files he had been given.  Dennis, Yuuri, Yuuya, Yuuto and the last unknown monster. All together that should have made him the sixth monster that Reiji had created, not the fifth.

 

However, as he stands here staring at the man in front of him, Shun finally understands why Reiji refused to count the twins as two separate people.  In fact, the twins were one person. They were undeniably one singular person.

 

This is what Yuuri had meant.  Shun has lost all faith he has ever had in any God that has ever existed.  If there is a God left in this damned world, it would be Reiji.

 

The twins are no longer two separate beings, but rather just one person.  The person that stands in front of Shun looks split down the middle. It’s as if someone took a picture of the two, cut them both in half and glued one half of each together.

 

“Who are you?”  Are the only words that Shun can manage.

 

The person opens his mouth, pausing as if he himself didn’t know the answer.  “Yuuya.” He finally answers. “And Yuuto. Call me Yuuya.”

 

“What did he do to you?”  Shun wonders, he’s breathless from his shock and confusion.

 

“It’s a long story.”  Yuuya begins. “It’s… a long story…”

 

Yuuya’s eyes take on a deep sadness.  His eyes, one the color of red rubies and the other the color of slate, fill with tears.

 

“Yuuto and I…  We were conceived as one before we were split into two separate people just like any other set of twins.  Even when we were in our mother’s womb, we loved each other more than anything else. When we were born, we were inseparable.  It was like… we were one being instead of two.

 

We loved each other more than the normal pair of siblings ever do, more than most can even imagine.  We had this connection, this bond, that went far beyond that of just siblings. We felt each other’s pain, each other’s sadness and joy.  It was like we shared a soul that was split into two bodies.

 

We were happy, living together and staying together.  We were each other’s best friend. We never needed more than that.

 

That all ended so suddenly.  Neither of us saw it coming.”  Yuuya’s voice trails off, fading at the end as he chokes back tears.

 

“What happened?”  Shun asks, quietly.

 

“When…  When Yuuto died it was so sudden.  I felt his pain, it was unbearable and excruciating.  Then… then I felt nothing… He was gone… my brother… My whole other half was gone.

 

That’s when I met Reiji.  He told me that he is a doctor.  He said that he could work miracles, that he could give me my brother back.  I was so delusional that I accepted his offer. I didn’t know… I didn’t know that it would turn out like this.

 

He told me that he needed bone marrow to bring back Yuuto.  He said that he would have to put me to sleep so that he could do it painlessly.  I let him knock me out and when I woke up, I looked like this.”

 

Shun tries to swallow but he can’t.  His mouth and throat feel so dry. Why…  Why would anyone do something like this to all these people?  How can Reiji be so awful to ruin people’s lives, one after another.

 

“I know he sent you here.  He sent another after me before this too.  If you want to kill us, then just do it.” Yuuya shakes his head -- their head.

 

Shun shakes, his whole body shakes with so much fury.  He wants to scream and to punch something. What kind of doctor can be so evil, so cruel?  How can any human being do this kind of thing to another?

 

“I can’t…  I can’t kill you.”  Shun closes his eyes.  It’s so hard to think straight.  This whole day has been too much.  It’s like being in a never ending nightmare.

 

“Why not?”  Yuuya asks.

 

“You don’t deserve to die like this.”  Shun answers solemnly. 


	5. Entice

When Shun walks away, he feels numb.  There’s no feeling left inside his heart or body.  He wants this all to end. He wants to wake up and know that this is a dream.  He wants to go back to whatever normal used to be before he became this and before the monsters he met had become monsters.

 

He monotonously opens up the last file.  He doesn’t know what to expect anymore except for the worst among them all.  He thinks of Yuuya and Yuuto again, wondering how can it get worse from here.  If Reiji had brought the dead back to life to sew one half of his dead body to one half of his living brother’s body, then what had Reiji done to this last victim?

 

Shun hesitates to open up the last file.  It takes all his strength to flip it open and to push himself forward with his mission.  At first, when Shun sees the picture in the file, he thinks the picture is that of a young child.  When he investigates further into the page, he finds out that the person in the picture can’t be much younger than him.  

 

Sora Shiun’in.  His face and eyes are so round that he looks closer to being twelve rather than twenty-two.  Shun stares for a long moment, afraid of what dark secret lurked behind those bright, green eyes.  How monsterous could someone like him be? What had Reiji turned him into.

 

Shun’s afraid to find out, but he has to keep moving.  He needs to know the final secret, the final monster. He has to know what Reiji has done so that he can end it all.

 

The coordinates of the new address aren’t very far at all.  It’s just a few blocks away. The whole area seemed as sketchy as a back alley behind a liquor store at midnight, so maybe this apartment building is just as abandoned as the last three places that Shun had visited.

 

The apartment that Shun ends up at does look abandoned, however it’s in much better condition than the last one.  There’s still a sigh on the front door that reads out ‘eviction notice’ with a date printed in a big, bold font. Shun doesn’t know what date it is, he never bothered to check, so he isn’t sure how recently this place had been abandoned.

 

Getting in is so much harder than the last three places.  Nothing is unlocked and nothing can be opened easily. Shun has no choice but to kick in a window and climb in.  This time, the glass cuts him, leaving puddles of gold to pool and soak into Shun’s clothes.

 

Shun walks around the small apartment.  It’s dusty but still in pleasant condition.  He doesn’t know why a place like this would be abandoned so easily, it seemed like it would turn out quite a profit.  Maybe the problem with this building is similar to his own problem, on the outside it looked fine but it has problems deep down.

 

Shun maneuvers his way around the building, trying to find a staircase to climb.  He finally manages to find one, which he hurriedly climbs up. When he gets to the top, he feels like the temperature in the building has dropped.  Of course, a building like this has the heat turned off but Shun doubts that is what caused the chill down his spine.

 

He only has a few seconds to understand the true cause of the sudden terror in his heart before he’s flying down the staircase.  He hits his head hard on the ground, knocking himself out.

 

His brain tries its hardest to wake himself up.  The last thing he saw were those bright, green eyes that sparkled in the picture placed in the last file that he opened.  His brain yells at him to wake up, but the fog is so thick that Shun struggles to open his eyes.

 

The only thing that wakes him up is the sudden searing pain in his chest.  Shun’s eyes fly open, his teeth clenching down onto something soft like a folded up piece of fabric.  His eyes try to focus to find the source of his pain. They finally land on the boy from the file, Reiji’s fourth victim, Sora Shiun’in.

 

Sora is straddling Shun’s hips.  Shun is painfully aware of just how heavy Sora is.  For someone so childlike, he weighed so much.

 

Shun chokes on the gag in his mouth when he tries to speak.  His hands are tied to something, along with his ankles. He can’t move or even say a single word.  Sora sighs, leaning forward to pull the gag from Shun’s mouth.

 

“What are you doing to me?”  Shun demands, his body crying out in pain.

 

“Shh…”  Sora holds a finger to his lips.  His finger is dripping with gold, covered in Shun’s blood.  “This will all be over soon.”

 

Sora’s cutting him open, Shun can feel it.  He can feel the sharp blade as it cuts a hole into Shun’s chest.  He can feel Sora’s hand moving around inside of his chest. He pokes at Shun’s organs, pulling at them.  Shun bites back a scream as Sora yanks against his heart.

 

“You’re such a big baby.”  Sora rolls his eyes. “Stop groaning.”

 

Groaning?  Shun’s body is literally being cut open and this boy has his hands all over Shun’s organs.  

 

Sora pulls something out of Shun’s chest.  It’s something small and shiny, like a computer chip.  Sora smiles victoriously as he crushes it into the floor.

 

“There.”  Sora beams.  “All better.”

 

Sora pulls out a needle and thread from his pocket which he uses to stitch up the hole in Shun’s chest.  He hums a nursery rhyme to himself while he works. Even his voice is childlike, Shun doesn’t understand how someone so innocent looking could cause so much pain.

 

“You’re blood is golden.”  Sora notes. He licks his fingers, tasting Shun’s blood.  “Eww, it tastes so metallic. Reiji really went all out this time.”

 

“What did you do to me?” Shun demands.

 

“Oh, that?  Geeze, you’re so annoying.  I was just removing Reiji’s dumb little microchip from your heart.”  Sora sighs, as if he’s bored by the conversation. “I guess he finally learned his lesson.  He keeps making monsters but he doesn’t have a backup plan for them if they go rogue. Now that I’ve removed that nasty thing, you’re safe and sound and I don’t have to clean up if you explode all over my kitchen.”

 

“Microchip?”  Shun mumbles, confused.  His chest is already healing, but he still feels as if he’s been vandalized or something.  How intrusive of Sora to just cut him open as if he is just a piece of meat.

 

“It will self-destruct if you decide to fight Reiji.  I mean, the nanobots he put in your blood are nice and all but they can’t stop that chip from killing you.  It’s a teeny, tiny explosive but it’s enough to end your life for good.”

 

Shun blinks, trying to absorb the information. 

 

“He gave you nanobots, it’s such a nice present.  Reiji is a real jerk. You know what he gave to me?  A saw in my chest and knives in my wrists. I’m filled with sharp weapons.  I don’t know why he thought it was a good idea, I know he wanted me to kill the others but he could have given me the nanobots instead.”  Sora shakes his head, annoyed.

 

“A saw in your chest?”  Shun repeats.

 

“Oh yeah, it’s a real pain.”  Sora huffs. “After all the work I did for him, don’t you think I deserved better than that?”

 

“You were supposed to kill the others too.  Why didn’t you?”

 

“I should ask you the same question.  I think our answers would be the same.  I doubt you came for me first. If you did, I guess that’s nice of you.  What drew you in?”

 

“Why are you so annoying?  Do you ever shut up?” Shun groans.  “Will you get off of me?”

 

Sora sighs, heaving himself off of Shun’s body.  He plops his feet unto the ground, standing with his hands on his hips.

 

“I live here all alone, okay?  I haven’t had anyone to talk to in months.  I may be a monster but I still need someone to talk to, too.”

 

Shun sighs.  He wishes that Sora just killed him rather than supposedly save his life.

 

“I’m honestly excited to see you.”  Sora admits. “I’ve been wanting to get my revenge on Reiji ever since he did this to me.  I can’t do it alone but with you… I don’t think he stands a chance.”

 

“Why should I listen to you?”  Shun demands.

 

“Because, I know everything you really need to know about Reiji.”  Sora beams. “The truth about the doctor that you must think is a hero.”

 

“Tell me, then.”  Shun suggests. “Tell me the truth about him.”

 

Sora perches himself on top of a kitchen stool.  He kicks his feet back and forth in the air, acting like a toddler in a high chair.  

 

Shun looks around for the first time, taking the apartment in.  It’s clean and it looks lively. It looks like Sora took care of this place, despite the fact that the rest of the building is so unkempt.  

 

“Where should I start?”  Sora says to himself.

 

“Just start somewhere.”  Shun mutters. He stands up, brushing himself off.  He’s shirtless now so he tries to find the shirt that Sora must have taken off of him.

 

“Well…  When I was a child, I used to want to be a doctor.”  Sora begins. “I would find broken toys and put them back together again.  I liked the feeling of fixing things that needed a second chance so I felt like I was meant to be a doctor.  

 

That’s how I met Reiji.  He was practising at the same hospital that I was.  We were new doctors, we both graduated early because we excelled in our studies.  Even though we were smart and ready to become doctors, a lot of people looked down on us for being so young.

 

Reiji liked to do things that weren’t really logical or medically safe.  I’ve watched him do things to patients that no doctor would dare try. The things he did back then weren’t necessarily bad, he saved lives, but he was being dishonest and dangerous.”

 

“He told me that other doctors weren’t happy with his work.”  Shun remembers.

 

“Of course not.  Doctors have to follow certain laws and regulations.  Reiji threw those things out of the window too often. Doctors complained, nurses complained, our patients complained.  Even I complained sometimes.

 

He was kicked out of the hospital for all the trouble he caused.  He couldn’t find a job after that. Doctors talk, you know. They all knew about his reputation, no one wanted him to go near their patients.  I don’t think Reiji even cared, he hated them all anyway. He said that they interrupted his vision, that they got in the way of his practises. 

 

I ended up following him, I quit my job for him.  I… I was really stupid back then. I had so much faith in him.  I had so much… love for him. In the end he betrayed me and made me into one of his stupid experiments.

 

I was there when he made the Twins into… into whatever that mess is now.  He hid that kind of thing from me, I didn’t know until it was too late to stop him.  I felt so sick when I found out.

 

Do you know what he did to them?  Yuuto was already dead when he sewed him to Yuuya’s body.  I don’t understand how Reiji can be so… so messed up but so gifted.  He managed to make them work, to make them live. They should be dead.

 

When he knew that I found out, that’s when he turned on me.  I think he knew that I was angry at him. I wanted to go to the police or to kill him myself, even.  I would have done anything to stop him.

 

When he found out about me, he turned me into this.  A weapon, a human weapon. He wanted me to go out and kill his previous experiments and I would have for him…  I would have because I still wanted to believe that he is still a good man but he isn’t. He’s a monster.

 

I ran away and hid from him so he couldn’t hurt me.”

 

Sora stops talking.  For a moment, Shun think that Sora will start to cry.  He looks so hurt, devastated and broken. 

 

“He’s still hurting more people.”  Sora mutters angrily. “I wouldn’t put it past him.  I knew he would but I hoped that he’d end it with me.”

 

Shun glares into the floor, trying to think of his next move.  He can’t kill these people. They weren’t monsters, they were just normal people that had the unimaginable happen to them.  They didn’t ask for this fate, it had been dealt to them like a bad hand in a card game.

 

“Do you really think that we can stop him?”  Shun asks, quietly.

 

“We might.”  Sora sighs. “It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?  I don’t care whether I live or die at this point.  All I want is for him to die.”

 

“He threatened me to get me to do this.  He threatened my family.” Shun admits. “Maybe I’m playing into his hands too much.  I don’t even know my family.”

 

“How come?”  Sora asks.

 

“I don’t remember anything.  I don’t even know my own name.”  Shun answers. The more he talks, the more pathetic he feels.  Maybe Reiji had lied to him about the whole sister thing.

 

“Maybe we can find out you who are.”  Sora suggests. “We’d have to sneak into his office when he isn’t there.  That can’t be too hard. I can hack his computer.”

 

“What if he catches us?”  Shun worries.

 

“No, he won’t catch me.  He can catch you.” Sora shakes his head as if the answer if obvious.  “He still thinks that you’re on his side. You can distract him to give me time.”

 

“Let’s do it then.  Let’s go right now before the sun rises.  We have at least an hour.” Shun suggests.

 

“Do you have a way to get there?”  Sora frowns.

 

“I have his car.”  Shun remembers.

 

“Oh, sweet.  I miss those.”  Sora beams. He hops off his chair in excitement.  “Let’s go.”


	6. Realization

It takes a longer drive to get back to the clinic.  It feels a little awkward since they’re both alone in a car together.  The apartment hadn’t been so bad, but the car is so much smaller and more cramped that it’s harder to ignore the awkward tension between them.

 

“Did you really have to cut me open and stick your hands in me?”  Shun asks. It feels so weird to say it so casually, as if he were asking why Sora had left the television on after he went to bed.

 

“Well… I wanted to see what Reiji did to you.”  Sora leans back in his seat.

 

“You could have just asked me.”

 

“It’s not as much fun that way.”  Sora beams. “I have to show you who’s boss one way or another.”

 

“You’re half my size.”  Shun mutters.

 

“Oh yeah?  Have you ever seen an ant take down a wasp?”  Sora questions.

 

Shun steams over that one.  He can’t remember if he has or not, but he won’t admit it.  “Shut up, Pipsqueak.”

 

“Hey!”  Sora squeaks.  “I’m not a pipsqueak.  You’re just a freakishly large troll.”

 

Shun grinds his teeth at that one too.  He figures it’s best not to say more. Of course, he had the impulse control of a sugar loaded four year old so he continues to annoy Sora for the rest of the journey.  By the time they get to the clinic, they’re both out of breath and out of quirky comebacks.

 

“I don’t see any sign of him.”  Sora says as they enter the apartment.  “We should be safe for now.”

 

“Just go and hack into the computer already.  I’ll stay out here and keep watch for him.” Shun mutters.

 

Sora pouts and sticks his tongue out at Shun before he skulks off to find Reiji’s office room.  Shun can hear him typing on the computer. It’s a quick rhythm that feels strangely comforting. 

 

Shun thinks that an hour or two goes by.  It goes by quickly, since Shun ends up lost in his own thoughts.  He thinks of the people he’s met today. He wonders what their lives were once like and how it would compare to his own or to Sora’s.  

 

Dennis was an actor.  Yuuri had been his lover.  The twins were once a happy family.  Sora used to be a doctor. Who was he, once upon a time?  Was he a good brother? Was he even a good man? Did he have someone back home that he used to love the way that Yuuri loves Dennis?

 

He has so many questions and no answers to any of them.  His head spins as he tries to keep up. He doesn’t know anything about himself at all, not his name, or how old he is, or whether or not he graduated high school.  He knows nothing, it all draws a blank in his head.

 

He’s in the middle of wondering whether or not he ever had a pet cat when he hears the keys turn in the door.  He jumps up, scrambling to stand. He brushes himself off, trying to look as casual as possible even though his heart is racing.  He can hear the sound of typing go dead silent, Sora knows that Reiji is here too.

 

The door swings open as Reiji steps inside.  He doesn’t look shocked to see Shun. In fact, he looks like he’s disappointed in Shun.  

 

“Ah, Five.  You’re still here?  I figured that you’d leave by now.”  Reiji sighs. He sounds tired.

 

“I did for a while.”  Shun admits. It isn’t a lie, not yet.

 

“Did you get to meet the experiments?”  Reiji asks.

 

“I did.” Shun answers.

 

“Did you euthanize them?”  Reiji continues.

 

“No.”  Shun admits.

 

Reiji frowns at that.  He looks slightly angry now.  Shun swallows back the lump forming in his throat.  He can’t afford to keep tongue-tied now.

 

“I had some trouble with them.”  Shun admits.

 

“Were they too frightening for you?”  Reiji asks.

 

“You could say that.”  Shun answers quietly.

 

“Is that why you’re back here?”  Reiji asks, his tone is short tempered.  “I thought you’d be capable of killing them.”

 

“I just… need some more information on them.”  Shun tries to find something more to keep the conversation going.

 

“What do you want to know about them?”  Reiji asks. “A shot to the head will kill them all.  If you can’t aim then shoot until you hit them. It’s a simple task.  I cannot babysit you through this.”

 

“I don’t need to be babysat.”  Shun argues.

 

“Then what do you want?”  Reiji sounds tired and exasperated.

 

“I want to know why.”  Shun spits. “Why did you do that to them?”

 

“Do you really want to know?”  Reiji’s tone is so harsh that it’s cutting.  “Tell me, then. Do you really want to know why I’ve done what I’ve done?  I’ve had so many people ask me that question. I do what I do to save people.  It doesn’t matter if I hurt people in the process. What matters is the end result.  If I can save lives, then I’ll destroy a few in the process.”

 

“What did you do to me, then?”  Shun questions.

 

“If I told you that, you’d want to kill me too.”

 

Shun shakes.  He’s furious now.  Reiji had ruined so many lives…  All for what? What could ever equivalate this kind of suffering and sacrifice?  Even if he saved a dozed lives, he’s already ruined so many.

 

“What did you do to me?”  Shun demands again. “I’m done with your games!”

 

“I found you by chance.  A random man on a random street.  You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, at least for you.  For me, I couldn’t have asked for better luck.

 

I hit you in the head.  It was a really hard blow, I must apologize for that.  I blame myself for your memory loss. I hit you too hard.

 

I couldn’t get you here in one piece which was fine to me.  I like to challenge myself. I cut you apart into pieces and stuffed you into a bag.  I brought you here and reassembled you like a cheap, dollar store puzzle. I stitched you up, started to artificially pump your blood and then I administered the nanobots.  I think it worked wonders, considering that you’re able to stand there and criticize me like this.”

 

Shun’s head spins.  He wants to throw up.  This man murdered him so easily, so simply.  It was like he were some piece of meat in a butcher shop that he came in, bought and cooked up.

 

“You criticize me so easily.  You have no idea why I’m so desperate.  I think you of all my experiments would understand.  Yuuya understood me once, he and I know the same desperation of the fear of losing someone you love.”

 

“Who could you possibly love?  You’re heartless.” Shun spits.

 

“I may appear as such but I too have a younger sibling.  I have a younger sister, she fell ill several years ago. It drove me to this insanity.  I’m trying to cure her but I don’t dare try the cure on her, not until I’ve tested it. You’re my final test, I just need to make sure that the nanobots are stable in your system.”

 

“What do you mean by that?”  Shun continues to push. He feels like he’s treading into dangerous waters the further he goes into this conversation with Reiji.  Reiji is too much like a snake waiting in the weeds or a crocodile waiting beneath calm water. 

 

“The nanobots aren’t exactly the most perfect cure nor are they even safe to use.  They’re robots, small and highly-advanced, but they are still just robots. Like any robot of its kind, it can easily malfunction.”

 

“Malfunction…”  Shun echoes.

 

“They could malfunction and break down, which would leave you defenseless.  Of course, that’s not such a bad thing when you compare it to the other possibility.”

 

“What is the other possibility?”  Shun asks.

 

“They could malfunction and decide that your own body is a danger to itself.  It would attack your body from the inside, like a vicious virus. Since your white blood cells are dormant now, the nanobots have nothing to stop them.  Then, after the nanobots have caused sufficient damage, you would die.”

 

Shun feels nauseous at the thought of it.  “You’re just waiting to see if I die, then?”  Shun’s voice sounds so weak now. He feels so weakened.  

 

“For lack of a better phrase, yes.  I’m waiting to see if you will die from this.”  Reiji answers.

 

He tries to push past Shun, but Shun refuses to budge.  He knows that Sora is still in the other room. He can’t let Reiji find Sora, or else both he and Sora will be in danger.  If Reiji is capable of bringing the dead back to life, then Shun doesn’t even want to imagine how capable he’d be at taking away someone’s life.

 

If Reiji is being truthful with him, then Shun already knows that Reiji can kill so easily.  Even with the nanobots in Shun’s system, Shun doubts that he’d survive in a fight against Reiji.  

 

“Move.”  Reiji demands.  “Or I will make you move.  I am not afraid to hurt you.”

 

“Not until you answer my questions.”  Shun fights back. He just needs to distract Reiji, at least until Sora can find a way out of this place.

 

“I am willing to do much worse to you than push you out of my way.”  Reiji threatens. “I will sever your limbs if you don’t do as I order you to do.”

 

Shun tries to stand firm but Reiji won’t have it.  He pushes Shun, which only makes Shun stumble back a little bit.  He’s still standing strong. He won’t let a little push like that stop him from protecting his new comrade in this awful new fight.

 

He can see the anger in Reiji’s eyes.  Shun lifts his chin up higher, his pride getting the better of him in this situation.  He won’t let Reiji win.

 

Reiji pushes him again, this time into the wall behind him.  Reiji holds him against it, pushing so hard that Shun is painfully aware of how hard the wall is.  Shun expects Reiji to punch him or to kick him. Instead, Shun is caught off guard when Reiji kisses him full force.

 

Shun doesn’t fight him off.  The shock of the situation is enough to keep Shun stunned until he mimics a silent statue.  He stands quietly, his hands half raised to defend himself. Now he isn’t sure what to do with them.  

 

He isn’t sure whether or not he likes like Reiji is doing.  There’s something nice about having Reiji’s lips pressed hard against his.  Reiji is so demanding and forceful that Shun can’t help but feel a little dazed.  He kind of likes that feeling, if Reiji wasn’t such an awful person, Shun would probably enjoy this a lot more.

 

Reiji pulls away only after a moment, although it felt like minutes had gone by.  Shun stands there, still shocked into silence. He’s so dazed by the sudden kiss that he doesn’t have the chance to stop Reiji from walking into his office.

 

Shun manages to snap out of it when he hears the door open.  All he can think of is Sora and how close they are to being caught red-handed.  

 

He follows Reiji into the room, his hopes all but vanishing.  He glances around but sees no sign of Sora. Maybe Sora had ditched this place when he heard Reiji walk through the door.  Shun can only hope for that. He doesn’t know whether or not Sora got the information he needed, but Shun isn’t concerned about that right now.  He’s just concerned about getting out of here alive.

 

“You look so shocked.”  Reiji says quietly. The anger in his voice is gone.  

 

“You kissed me.”  Shun mutters, still confused.

 

“You think of me as a monster.”  Reiji sighs. “You forget that before I became one, that I was once human too.”

 

Shun stays quiet.  All he does is watch as Reiji looks for something.  Reiji becomes more desperate as the seconds tick by.  Whatever he’s looking for is important to him.

 

When he finds it, he holds it up just enough for Shun to make out what it is.  It’s a small jar of liquid medicine. It’s in a brown glass bottle so the color of the medicine is muted into a muddy brown.  

 

Reiji quickly pockets the medicine in a hidden pouch inside his jacket.  He brushes past Shun to make his way to the front door so he can leave.

 

“Where are you going?”  Shun questions.

 

“That isn’t something you need to be aware of.  Just make use of yourself and do as I have already asked of you.”  Reiji orders.

 

He leaves without another word.  Shun stands there, confused and conflicted.  Reiji had a little sister. A sick little sister to be exact.  Maybe it had been a lie, Shun shouldn’t trust him so easily. If it were true though, maybe that meant that Reiji had some tiny shred of humanity left in him.

 

“Oh good, he’s gone.”  Sora sighs, appearing out of nowhere.

 

Shun jumps in shock at the sound of his voice.  “Where did you come from?”

 

“I climbed out the window.”  Sora answers with a small smile.  “I had to balance on the ledge. It’s two inches wide, by the way.  I deserve a round of applause.”

 

Instead of applause, Sora just gets a frown from Shun.

 

Sora pouts and crosses his arms over his chest. “Well, I can tell you one thing for sure.  I don’t need to look you up in Reiji’s files to know that you don’t have a sense of humor.”

 

“Did you find anything useful?”  Shun sighs, annoyed. 

 

“Yes.  I have your name.”  Sora chirps, smiling proudly as he puts his hands on his hips victoriously.  “It wasn’t easy. Reiji has all sorts of locks now. I had to shift through a lot of stuff to find it.”

 

“Well, tell me what it is then.”  Shun mutters, impatient.

 

Sora’s pout returns momentarily.  “You should be nicer to me, considering that I just risked my life to find your name.”

 

“I spared your life too, remember?”  Shun argues.

 

“Hey, I was the one winning, remember?  I had my hands literally on your heart, you know.  I could have killed you. I’m starting to think that I should have.  Geeze, you’re such a spoilsport.” 

 

Shun rolls his eyes so hard that he thinks they might fall out of his head and roll away on the floor.  “Tell me, already.”

 

“Fine.”  Sora crosses his arms.  “Your name is Shun Kurosaki.  Reiji found it on your driver’s license.  You must have had it on you when he brought you here or something.  You’re 24 years old. You’re apparently a blood donor, you had a card on you about that too.  He had pictures from your phone too, lots of pictures of some girl.”

 

“Can I see the photos?”  Shun asks.

 

“I don’t think I can hack back into Reiji’s computer without it being obvious that I’ve been snooping in his files.”  Sora says. His eyes widen a little as he thinks of what Reiji would do if he found out about him. “I couldn’t print it out either, he’d notice.  He might even notice that I’ve been here as it is. I don’t want to make it more noticable.”

 

“Great, so now I’ll never know who that girl is.”  Shun huffs.

 

“Well, I suspect that your phone is in here somewhere.  We can look for it.” Sora suggests with an unsure shrug.  “You can lie to him and say that you were looking for something to write with.”

 

“I’ll look for it, then.”  Shun sighs, hanging his head low.  He didn’t even know what his phone looked like.  How was he supposed to find it?

 

“I’m going to get something to eat from the kitchen.”  Sora decides. 


	7. Ablaze

Shun looks through the drawers in Reiji’s office as Sora rummages through the refrigerator.  He doesn’t find much, just some pens and a few paper clips. He gives up on the office and walks out to the hallway.  He can see Sora eating the pot roast that Reiji had made for dinner the other night. Seeing it makes Shun’s stomach turn as he remembers how Reiji had brought him here in pieces like he had been cuts of meat.

 

Shun finds his way back into the room that he had woken up in.  It seems like less of a nightmare when he’s standing in the doorway and not laying in that uncomfortable mockery of a bed.  He looks around, shuffling through the drawers that holds medical tools. There’s a few needles and scalpels that Shun tries to avoid touching.

 

Shun wants to give up on finding his phone.  It is a wild goose chase for all he knows, what little he knows…

 

That’s when he notices it, a pile of neatly folded clothes on a set of metal shelves.  Shun checks them, patting them down to see if he can find anything hidden beneath them.  He feels a jolt of relief when he finds both a wallet and a phone.

 

When he opens up the wallet, he sees his face staring back at him from his driver’s license.  He checks for any money, finding a few tens and a twenty. It’s not much but at least he had some money to his name now.

 

The phone proves to continue to be difficult.  There’s a passcode needed to unlock it. It’s the kind that needs a pin number.  Shun doesn’t remember what the code is. It might as well be a stranger’s phone at this point.  His identity is a stranger to him, a stranger that he so desperately needs to know.

 

He walks back out to meet Sora again.  His shoulders are slumped in defeat. He sits heavily in the chair across from Sora at the small dining table.

 

“Do you want some?”  Sora asks as he points to the food.  “It’s really good.”

 

“No.”  Shun sighs, putting his head in his hand.

 

“You could be a vegetarian.”  Sora laughs a little. “Can you imagine if you were a vegetarian and then you ate meat because you just forgot that you’re not supposed to anymore?  That would be really messed up.” 

 

“Can you just… stop talking.”  Shun snaps.

 

Sora frowns.  He looks like he wants to scold Shun but he thinks better of it.  “Is that your phone?”

 

“Yeah.  I need a password but I don’t remember it.”  Shun rubs at his eyes in frustration.

 

“Let me see it.”  Sora suggests. He yanks the phone from Shun’s hand and plays with it for a second.  “I got it.”

 

Shun takes the phone back, staring at it in shock.  It’s unlocked. “How…?” He asks in awe.

 

“I put in your birthday.”  Sora shakes his head. “It’s on your driver’s license.  I remembered it. You know, I think there’s more wrong with your brain aside from amnesia.  I think you’re missing your common sense.”

 

Shun doesn’t even care about that jab.  He’s too excited right now to even notice.  He scrolls through his phone, looking for the photo gallery.  He holds his breath for just a moment before he presses it.

 

The pictures in the gallery are few in number.  There’s around thirty in total. Some are just random pictures that range from pictures of birds to pictures of random grocery items.  Shun scrolls past them all, trying to find the girl that Sora had mentioned.

 

Shun stops as soon as he sees her.  She’s such a soft looking girl, with her hair tied up in an intricate style and her cheeks a rosy pink.  The backdrop is a snowy street beside a few shop houses, which explains why her face has turned so red. She’s smiling sweetly at the camera, a demure look in her magenta hued eyes.

 

This must be her, his little sister.  Shun can feel it in his heart. He can’t remember her completely but his heart knows her.  His heart can recognize her.

 

“This is… my sister.” Shun mumbles quietly.

 

“Wow… she’s really pretty.”  Sora notices. “I guess she got all the good looks.  Probably all the brains too.”

 

Shun shoots Sora a dirty look but doesn't say anything.  He’s too busy staring at his phone. He scrolls through a little more, finding a picture of himself and his sister.  They look happy, together. It seems to be his birthday, with an artificially vibrant blue cake sitting in front of him.

 

He doesn’t remember her, but he misses her with all his heart now.

 

“Did you check for any messages?”  Sora asks as he takes another bite of the pot roast.

 

“No, not yet.”  Shun admits. He should have checked that first.

 

He has over a hundred messages that are labelled as unread.  The most come from Ruri, of course, his little sister. The first few are asking him to pick up a few groceries.  She keeps adding things to the list as she remembers new things, like milk or butter. The next ones are worried, asking him when he’ll be home.  The messages get demanding as she demands to know where he is and why he hasn’t come home. The last few are hopeless, as she realizes that he won’t be returning home to her.  The last one breaks Shun’s heart. 

 

“Please come home.  I need you…” Ruri texts.  

 

Shun wishes he could.

 

He looks at the other messages as he tries to stop himself from crying.  His eyes burn as tears threaten to start pouring down his cheeks. He blinks hard, trying to focus on the other messages.

 

Some look like work messages.  There’s a few people asking him when he’ll be into work and that he’s late.  A few other messages are spam, from companies Shun has probably subscribed to in one way or another.  Then there’s a few from someone named Kaito.

 

“I don’t know who this is.”  Shun scratches his head.

 

“He must be a friend.”  Sora shrugs.

 

“He seems like it…”  Shun wonders.

 

Kaito’s messages are all very short.  He doesn’t seem all that interested in talking to Shun but he still does.  If they’re friends, then it seems like they aren’t very close. Maybe they were, Shun can’t be sure.

 

“Maybe you should call someone?”  Sora wonders aloud. “I mean… I think they’d have a heart attack if they heard from you but maybe it’s worth a shot.”

 

Shun swallows.  He isn’t sure if it’s a good idea.  He doesn’t know what the reaction will be or even where he would go from there.  It’s not that he has any good plans at the moment, either. Teaming up with Sora so that they can try to kill Reiji is easier said than done.

 

“What good will it do to call someone?”  Shun asks.

 

Sora shrugs.  “If you want to know who you are, shouldn’t you call and talk to someone you used to know?”

 

“That’s not our objective, we want to kill Reiji.”  Shun reminds.

 

Sora sighs and leans back in his chair.  He looks so frustrated with the situation and Shun can’t blame him.  “It won’t be an easy task. He’s not going to go down without a fight.  There’s a huge chance that he’ll kill us, Shun.” Sora says quietly. “I like calling you that, now that I know your name.”

 

“Yeah.”  Shun agrees, smiling a little.  Maybe Sora isn’t so bad, he is just kind of a brat.  “It’s nice to be called that.”

 

“I think we should recruit the others.”  Sora says, standing. “We’ll have a better chance that way.”

 

“I… don’t know.”  Shun says, a little sheepish.  “I sort of cut Yuuri’s vines so I don’t know if he’s in good shape anymore.”

 

“That’s…”  Sora stops, struggling to think of how to respond to such news.  “It’s what he deserve. We can still try to use him.”

 

“I think he wants Reiji to be dead too.”  Shun muses. “The Twins and Dennis are a different story.”

 

“We can try, right?”  Sora loses some of the confidence in his voice.  “Maybe we’ll get lucky and Reiji will get hit by a bus.”

 

It’s a far fetched idea but Shun finds himself hoping for that now too.  That would solve all his problems without the mess of blood on his hands.  He just wants it all to end so he can try to go home to Ruri again.

 

“Let’s go find the twins.”  Sora suggests. “We don’t have much time anymore.”

 

“Let’s do it, then.”  Shun agrees.

 

Sora bounces his way to and out the door.  Somehow he remains cheerful, despite everything that’s happening to him and around him.  Shun wishes he can be as cheerful but it seems like a shot in the dark for someone like him.


	8. Need

Shun worries that the Twins will not be there by the time that they arrive.  If they wanted to and had the desire to, they would have run away by now. Shun just hopes that they aren’t squandering away their time.  

 

Sora seems to become more nervous as they get closer to the abandoned apartment that the Twins call their home.  Shun can’t blame him, the Twins are nightmare inducing. It feels like walking into a real life horror movie. Then again, this whole experience is a real life horror movie, the Twins were just another character in it.

 

It’s easier to find them this time around.  Shun remembers their doorway although getting to it is just as hard as it was the first time.  Shun has to help Sora a few times, since Sora is so small that it makes it hard for him to climb over some of the bigger debris.  Shun doesn’t want to admit it, but it makes Sora seem kind of cute whenever he struggles to reach things.

 

This time, Shun let’s Sora lead the way and do the talking.  Sora knocks on the Twins’ door before he opens it and walks in.  The Twins look like they haven’t even moved since the last time that Shun saw them.

 

“Sora.”  They greet.  “Why are you here with… him…?”  They struggle to think of what to call Shun.  Shun never did get to introduce himself, not that he could have back then when he had no name for himself.

 

“This is Shun.”  Sora explains. “We’re teaming up to go after Reiji.”

 

“Oh.”  The Twins reply quietly.   They shift nervously in their seat.

 

“Do you two want in?”  Sora asks.

 

The Twins are quiet for another moment.  They look stressed, scratching at their arms as they think about it and consider the options.

 

“It’s a bad idea, Yuuto.”  They say, or to be specific, Yuuya says.  

 

“We should, Yuuya.”  Yuuto argues, taking over.

 

They argue amongst themself.  It continues back and forth until Shun doesn’t remember which one of the two is talking.  It’s a strange experience to watch them argue. It’s like they’re talking to themself, except they are two separate people arguing with one another.

 

“He made us into a monster, Yuuya.”  Yuuto mutters angrily. “He hurt us.”

 

“We can’t kill him though.”  Yuuya mumbles quietly. “It wouldn’t be right.”

 

“It would be justice.”  Yuuto pushes.

 

“I can’t…”  Yuuya begins to cry.  Tears fall out of one eye, his eye.  It’s disturbing to watch. Both Shun and Sora glance at each other uncomfortably. 

 

“We don’t have time to wait for you two to decide.”  Sora sighs. “You have to decide now or never.”

 

Yuuya shakes his head.  “I can’t do it. I won’t do it.  Reiji doesn’t deserve that.”

 

Yuuto sighs angrily but says no more.

 

“Listen…”  Shun begins.  “We’re going to look for the others.  If you change your mind, come find us.”

 

The Twins nod slowly as Yuuya wipes the tears from his eye.  “Alright.” They promise quietly.

 

Shun and Sora leave after that.  There’s no point in staying anymore, they have a short amount of time before Reiji catches on and before Reiji has a chance to hurt Ruri.

 

Shun waits until they are back safely in the car before he speaks again.  “That was… messed up. They argued with each other, even though they’re… in one body.”  Shun trails off at the end, feeling disturbed.

 

“The first time I met them, I almost ran away.  I didn’t though, I stayed to talk with them. They argue liked that when I first met time.  It gave me more nightmares than I already have from what Reiji did to me.”

 

Shun hasn’t had nightmares yet but he’s sure that he will.  He hasn’t slept since he woke up earlier that day. He doesn’t know what his dreams will be like, after he’s met so many tragedies in the form of warped human beings.  He just hopes that he’ll be spared of any nightmares.

 

“Do you still have nightmares?”  Shun wonders as he starts to drive to find Yuuri again.

 

“All the time.”  Sora admits. “I’m traumatized, it’s to be expected.  It’s just really hard to deal with sometimes. I don’t even have anyone to confide in, so I just end up feeling even more trapped.”

 

“I feel like I’m already in a nightmare, except it’s reality.  It’s Hellish.”

 

“It does feel that way, doesn’t it.  I prefer to think of it as a nightmare rather than Hell, though.”  Sora muses.

 

“Why is that?”  Shun asks, curious.

 

“Well…  If it’s a nightmare, we can wake up from it one day and hopefully wake up to a happy life where everything is normal and okay.  If this is our version of Hell, then we have to endure this torture forever.” Sora explains.

 

“You have a point there.”  Shun admits.

 

“Let’s hope this is all a bad dream.  I keep pinching myself so I can wake up but it doesn’t work.  I keep hoping anyway. I think I’d lose my mind if I didn’t have something to hope for.”  Sora admits. Yuuri said that he thought that Sora must be crazy. Maybe he’s right, at least a little bit.

 

“Hope, huh?”  Shun wonders.

 

“What are you hoping for?”  Sora asks.

 

“I hope I get to be with my sister again.”  Shun sighs. “I don’t even know her anymore, but I want to be with her again.”

 

“I never had much of a family.  I guess I’d miss them too if I had one like you do.”  Sora sighs. “Reiji has a little sister too. I’ve met her once.”

 

“Is she really sick?”  Shun asks, his voice hushed.

 

“Yeah, she’s really sick.  It’s hard to watch, even as a trained doctor.  I can’t bare to be around her. I can’t imagine what kind of pain she must be in.”

 

“Reiji wants to cure her.”  Shun mumbles.

 

“That’s why he’s doing all this.  I’ve heard the same sob story before, you know.  That doesn’t excuse his actions.”

 

“It doesn’t…  but doesn’t it make him more human?”  Shun asks.

 

“I guess so.  At least a little bit.”

 

Sora is quiet for another, long moment before he speaks again.  “He’s still a major jerk.”

 

“Definitely.”  Shun agrees.


	9. Command

The journey to find Yuuri feels short since they spoke the whole way.  It’s nice to have someone to fill the silence rather than having to face the awful radio music or bare the silent roads.  Sora somehow makes things feel more light hearted.

 

“I don’t think Yuuri will be happy to see me.”  Shun says as he parks the car. “It might be better if you do the talking.”

 

“Fine.”  Sora whines a little.  “I’ll talk to him. He’s just so melodramatic.  I know he and his ex-lover are monsters now but come on…”  Sora rolls his eyes. “Give me a break, we’re in the same boat here.  What a drama queen.”

 

Shun can’t help but laugh a little.  “He really is, isn’t he?” 

 

“Tell me about it.”  Sora snickers to himself as he opens his car door to get out of the vehicle.  “He complains but I swear that he secretly likes the whole tentacle thing.”

 

Shun rolls his eyes.  He wouldn’t be surprised if that really were the case.  Yuuri definitely seems like that kind of person. Shun wouldn’t put it past him, not after the whole strangulation thing.

 

“I’ll go in and you follow.”  Sora instructs. “Stay out his view until I tell him that I brought you.  I don’t want him to go off on me again.”

 

Shun nods.  He follows Sora as he makes his way into the observatory.  Sora is much better here than at the abandoned apartment building.  His short stature actually aids him this time, he can duck away from the plants easily while Shun constantly gets smacked in the face with random branches and leaves.

 

Sora stops suddenly and Shun nearly walks into him.  He catches himself right before he does, fortunately.  He opens his mouth to tell Sora to watch his step but Sora catches him off guard by holding a finger to his lips.

 

“Be quiet and stay here.”  Sora instructs.

 

Shun does what he’s told.  He crouches down so he can remain even more out of sight and also because he’s sick of being poked in the face by branches.

 

“Yuuri!  It’s me, Sora.”  Sora calls as he walks into the clearing among the many plants.  “Where are you? Are you sulking again?”

 

“I don’t sulk.”  Yuuri replies, obviously offended.  

 

Yuuri drops down from the balcony he had been sitting on.  He crosses his arms when he sees Sora face to face.

 

“What do you want?”  Yuuri questions, his voice is so close to sulking but Yuuri is trying to mask it.

 

“I want to kill Reiji.”  Sora answers. “I’m trying to build up numbers.  Do you want to join?”

 

“Don’t tell me, it’s just you and the Twins.  They’re so wimpy that it’s pathetic to watch them.  They’d just slow me down if I joined.” Yuuri holds his head high.

 

“I asked them and they said no.”  Sora explains.

 

“Oh, so it’s just you then.”  Yuuri scoffs. “Great, just great.  We can totally bring down Reiji with just the two of us.  You and me, all alone. We won’t die, there’s not even a chance.”

 

“You can stop being sarcastic with me.”  Sora mutters, his tone is angry now.

 

“You’re the one fooling around here.  We can’t kill him alone.” Yuuri huffs.

 

“We’re not alone, I brought Shun with me.”  Sora adds.

 

“I don’t even know who that is.”  Yuuri rolls his eyes.

 

“Shun is Reiji’s newest experiment.  You’ve met him, remember?”

 

“The one that cut my precious vines?”  Yuuri half snarls. “I’ll kill him, where is he?”

 

“That’s not important right now.  Do you want in or not?” Sora presses.

 

“What I want is to kill that guy for chopping my poor vines.”  Yuuri growls. “How can you expect me to kill Reiji when my vines are like this?”

 

Yuuri holds up the tentacles that Shun had sliced.  They’re in bad shape, each dripping some sort of plant ooze.  

 

“They’ll grow back.”  Sora reminds. “If we don’t kill Reiji now, he’ll find someone who will kill you.  Next time you might not be so lucky. The worst he did was cut your vines, he didn’t kill you even though he could have.”

 

Yuuri frowns.  “I’ll join you then.”  He promises. “However, if that scumbag touches my vines again, then I’m out.”

 

“Deal.”  Sora promises.

 

Shun takes this as his cue to come out of hiding.  He holds his hands up as he walks closer to the pair so that Yuuri won’t panic and decide to bail or even worse, to try and kill him again.

 

“Oh great, it’s you.”  Yuuri frowns. “You better not touch me again or I’ll stab you in your sleep.”

 

“I won’t do anything to you.”  Shun mutters, kind of annoyed by all this.  He only attacked Yuuri when Yuuri tried to kill him.  It was self defense in all honesty.

 

“Just stop bickering.”  Sora sighs, also fed up by all of this.  “Let’s get going. We need to try to recruit Dennis too.”

 

“Dennis…”  Yuuri suddenly starts to perk up a little.  “I haven’t seen him in so long. Let’s go. Hurry up you two.  Do I have to be the brains of this group or are you two able to take care of yourselves?”

 

Sora turns to subtly roll his eyes at Shun.  “I told you that he’s a drama queen.”

 

“I heard that, Shiun’in!  Don’t make me come back there and shut you up!”  Yuuri calls back. He’s already gotten so far ahead now since he heard that they were going to look for Dennis.

 

Shun rolls his eyes back at Sora.  He lets Sora walk ahead of him before he follows.  “I never doubted you for a second.”

 

“We better catch up with him.”  Sora starts to quicken his pace a smidge.  “Or he’ll go on about that for another ten minutes.”

 

“We don’t want that.”  Shun mutters as he tries to catch up.

 

By the time they reach Yuuri, he’s waiting by the exit.  He leans against the door, looking bored and irritated. “It took you long enough.”  He complains.

 

“Great.”  Sora mutters.  “We’ll never hear the end of this.”


	10. Excite

Just as Sora had warned, Yuuri complains during the whole drive to the abandoned theatre.  Shun feels like smashing his head into the steering wheel after only five minutes of Yuuri’s nagging.  He feels like he’s gotten stuck with a babysitting job, somehow.

 

Shun feels so relieved when they get to their new destination.  He can’t wait to get out of the car and away from Yuuri’s mouth.  He and Sora both jump from the car as soon as Shun parks it. The way that they act would make any one passing by think that they found a snake in their car.

 

“Oh good, we’re here.”  Yuuri sighs as he steps out from the car.  “I thought we’d never make it. With the way you drive, Shun, I thought we’d be dead before we even got the chance to kill Reiji.”

 

“Thanks.”  Shun mutters sarcastically.  A part of him wishes that he did kill Yuuri now, just so he could be spared all of this.

 

“That would be a funny headline.”  Sora pipes. “Three bodies found in car accident.  One was found with saws and knives sewn into their body.  Another was found with a parasitic plant growth inside his body.  The third has blood that gleams gold.”

 

“I wouldn’t be dead, you both would be.”  Shun reminds. He smiles to himself a little.  Maybe next time he could scare Yuuri into silence by threatening to drive into a street light.

 

“Do you two ever shut up?”  Yuuri huffs as he makes his way toward the theatre.  “That’s all I ever hear now. Just the two of you complaining endlessly.  Give it a rest.”

 

As soon as Yuuri turns his back, Sora sticks his tongue out towards him.  He then nudges Shun a little so he can quietly mock Yuuri while he’s not watching.  Shun has to hold back a snicker as Sora mockingly waves his arms around dramatically.  

 

“Let’s go already!”  Yuuri mutters impatiently.  “My Dennis is waiting for me.”

 

Yuuri decides not to wait for the other two.  His patience for them has gone out the window.  He throws open the entrance doors and makes his way in.

 

“What happened to these boards?”  Sora wonders as he inspects them closely.  “They’re all broken in half.”

 

“I… kicked the door open from the inside.”  Shun admits, feeling sheepish. “When I saw Dennis, I bolted.”

 

“I don’t blame you.”  Sora grimaces. “You’d think that his whole face situation is bad but it’s not the worst thing about him.  Why do you think Yuuri is so into him? They’re both insufferable.”

 

“How do you know so much about them?”  Shun asks as he holds the door open for Sora to walk through.

 

“We’re all pretty much in the same situation.  Reiji turned us into guinea pigs for his experiments.  We can’t exactly go out into society anymore, or else they’d hunt us down like we’re rabid animals.  Who else do we have to talk to?”

 

“You look normal though.”  Shun reminds him.

 

“Barely.”  Sora huffs.  “You don’t look normal, you’re shiny.  I can see the gold in your skin.”

 

“I can probably get away with it.”  Shun shrugs.

 

“Until you get a paper cut and you bleed gold.”  Sora reminds. “Or whenever you need to see a doctor.”

 

“I’ll never get sick.”  Shun argues. “The nanobots prevent that.”

 

“If you get hurt, people will call a doctor.  Or imagine the shock they’d feel if they saw you heal incredibly fast.  We’re not humans anymore, Shun. Believe me, I wish we could lie and get away with it.  I want to have a normal life with the job that I spent years learning how to do, with someone that I love, with a house full of cats.  I want to be normal again.

 

I can’t, I don’t think I can reverse what Reiji has done.  So instead, I’ll kill him. I’ll take away his life just like how he took away mine.”  Sora vows. “Now let’s go find Yuuri.”

 

Shun follows quietly, unsure of what to say anymore.  He wants to kill Reiji too, since it would at least mean that his sister would be safe.  He wants to go back to her and back to his life. Even though he doesn’t remember it, he wants it back.  With what Sora has told him, he can’t go back anymore. This is his life now.

 

He doesn’t know where he’ll live now or how he’ll get by.  Every single one of Reiji’s victims all lived as far from society as they could manage.  They lived in crumbling buildings, alone and with the constant fear of being caught since being caught meant death or to have even more experiments done on you.

 

He doesn’t know how he’ll eat or how he’ll sleep.  He has no way to make money so he can’t buy food. He’ll have to resort to stealing to get by.  He’ll have to find a safe place to sleep at night where no one would bother him. Thinking about it makes Shun feel hopeless.

 

Sora makes a face that snaps Shun back into reality.  It’s a face of disgust which Shun soon mimics when he lays his eyes on Yuuri.  Yuuri is kissing Dennis, or rather kissing the place where his lips should still be.  Dennis holds him close but since he has no mouth of his own, the whole scene just looks off.  It’s as if Yuuri is kissing a mannequin.

 

“Did you invite him to our group, yet?”  Sora asks, interrupting the grossly weird intimate moment.

 

“No.”  Yuuri mutters, clearly annoyed that Sora has intruded in on their passionate reunion.  

 

“Great.”  Sora forces a stiff smile.  “Dennis, we’re going after Reiji.  We want him dead and we want to see if you want to be a part of his execution.”

 

Dennis manages a nod.  He tries to speak but the words are so muffed that Shun can’t understand him.

 

“Well, that makes four of us.  The Twins don’t want in on the action.  Well, Yuuya doesn’t but Yuuto does.” Sora muses.

 

“We’ll help.”  A familiar voice echoes throughout the room.

 

Shun turns to see the Twins standing in the shadows.  They must have just walked in. Shun doesn’t know how they got here but he doesn’t want to question it too much.  He’s in some ways, glad to see them again despite how creepy they are.

 

“We changed our minds.”  They say. “We want to help you all.”

 

“Well then, that make five of us.  The whole gang is here.” Sora corrects himself.  “I’m glad that you decided to come back.”

 

“Great, so we have a faceless man, a human and plant hybrid, literally conjoined twins, see saw boy and a guy with magic unicorn blood.”  Yuuri sighs. “We’re most likely doomed here.”

 

“Well, if we die then it’s better than suffering through the rest of our lives like this.”  Sora reminds quietly.

 

“Reiji still trusts me.”  Shun speaks up. “I can be a decoy while you set up a way to kill him.”

 

“The question is, how do we kill him?”  Sora wonders. “A lethal injection, maybe?  I know the right doses and the right drugs to do it.  We need to get the supplies though.”

 

“What kind of supplies?”  The Twins ask. Their voice is so low and quiet that Shun has to strain himself to hear them.

 

“A needle, obviously.”  Sora taps his chin. “Some cyanide, or arsenic…  Something poisonous. Then Shun can stab him with it when his guard is down.”

 

“Me?”  Shun questions, shocked.

 

“Who else?  You just said that he trusts you.  You’re the only one that can get close enough to him.”  Sora reminds. “We can probably break into a pharmacy and steal what we need…”  

 

While Sora thinks of where to get what they need, Shun stares at the ground.  He needs a moment to recollect himself so he ends up going back outside into the cool, crisp night air.  He knows that they are going to kill Reiji and he knows that he has to for Ruri, but coming to terms with the act itself is difficult.

 

Shun can’t help but think of all the things that Reiji has told him.  Reiji has a sister too, someone he’s trying to save. What Reiji has done isn’t right, no matter what his reasons are.  Yet, Shun still finds himself feeling empathy towards him. If Shun were in his place, Shun is sure that he’d do just as bad if not worse.

 

Shun wonders if that makes him an awful person too.  Maybe the fact that he wants to kill Reiji is what makes him an awful person.  Was he always like this, even back when life was normal and simple? Was he a bad person that deserved this kind of punishment?  Shun doesn’t know anymore, he’s forgotten it all.

 

“We’re going to hit up a pharmacy, Shun.”  Sora says as he steps out of the theatre. He has the Twins trailing behind him.  “I’ve done this kind of thing before, so you can wait in the car while the Twins and I grab the goods.”

 

“Yeah, sure.”  Shun mumbles half heartedly.

 

Sora frowns, he starts to speak but for some reason he changes his mind about it.  Shun guesses that Sora can sense the change in his heart.

 

“There’s one by the corner down there.”  Sora says as he points left. “It’s a small one, but it should have what I need.”

 

Shun gets in the car and waits for the other two to hop in.  He drives in complete silence. He kind of misses Yuuri’s nagging now.  It’s strangely comforting to have someone talk so much. It’s a distraction from thinking too much about how everything around him is falling apart too quickly that he can’t fix it.

 

When he stops in front of the Pharmacy, Sora holds his finger to his lips.  “Don’t move or speak. I’m going to with the Twins. Just wait here for us. No cops will come, we’ll hack the system.  You just have to wait until we’re done.”

 

Shun nods.  “Got it.” 


	11. Xenia

Shun watches as the pair get out of the car and sneak to the back alley so they can get in through the back door.  Shun sighs and rubs his eyes out of frustration. He isn’t sure if he can do this, but if he doesn’t then no one else can.

 

He ends up looking at his phone again.  He scrolls through the conversations he’s had with people.  He can’t meet them, not anymore. He wonders if they miss him at all.  He surely misses them, even if he doesn’t remember them completely.

 

He’s able to put a few pieces of his life together.  Ruri is going to a university. Shun is the one that usually sends her to class and picks her up at the end of the day.  He wonders who has taken his place since he’s gone missing. 

 

Looking at his messages with Kaito, it seems like they went to school together.  They talk here and there about family life. Kaito seems to be a doctor of some kind.  At least Shun is able to piece together that Kaito is doing medical research. He wonders if Kaito has ever met Reiji or if he has ever heard of him.

 

He hopes that he’s taking care of Ruri now.  If they talk this much, then Shun must trust him and care for him.  He seems like the best choice for Ruri.

 

As Shun tries to lock his phone, his finger slips and he hits the ‘call’ button beneath Kaito’s name.  He quickly presses ‘end call’, with his heart racing in fear. He shouldn’t be calling anyone, they can’t know that he’s alive.

 

There’s silence for a moment before the phone in Shun’s hand starts to ring loudly.  Shun panics and hits the ignore button. He sighs in relief but the relief is short lived when the phone starts to ring again.  This time, Shun hesitantly hits the answer button.

 

The voice on the other side sounds panicked and urgent.  He sounds like he must have woken up from sleep. Shun realizes that a call from this phone must be alarming to anyone that knew him since he’s been missing.

 

“Shun?”  Kaito demands to know.  “Is that you? Where are you?”

 

Shun can’t answer.  His tongue feels like it’s tied.  He’s afraid that if he speaks that he’ll break something that he can never fix again.  If he speaks, then Kaito will know that he’s alive. He’s not sure what’s worse, losing someone and never finding them again or losing someone and knowing that they’ve chosen not to come home to you.

 

He doesn’t even know what to say.  What is there to say at this point?  Shun isn’t dead, but he should be and he should act like it.  He feels like he’s just a dead man walking the streets like a hungry zombie.   

 

He shouldn’t pretend to be a person.  He’s just like the others, Sora is right.  He’s a monster like the rest of them. He can’t go back, not anymore.  

 

“Why do you have this phone?”  Kaito’s voice is full of fury. “Do you have any idea who this phone belongs to?  Do you have any idea of how much damage you are causing right now? I know a girl that can’t stop crying and you think it’s funny to call me like this?”

 

Shun tries to clear his voice but he still stutters when he speaks.  “Kaito?”

 

The voice on the other side goes dead quiet.  Shun feels like the wind isn’t even blowing anymore.  It’s so quiet, it’s like time has paused and started to stand still.

 

“Shun?  What happened to you.  Please answer me. I’ve been so worried.”  Kaito begs. “We’re all worried about you. Ruri can’t stop crying.”

 

“I can’t tell you what happened.”  Shun tries to speak but his voice shakes so much that he worries that Kaito will not understand him.

 

“Why not?  Where are you?  I’ll come and get you.  If it’s really bad, I’ll get you out of it.  Did you get arrested again? Did you get in trouble again?  Are you okay?” Kaito demands to know. He doesn’t even stop to catch his breath.

 

“I got into trouble.”  Shun explains. “I don’t even remember what happened.  I can’t remember anything anymore. I can’t even remember you.”

 

“Shun, where are you?  I’ll come get you. What street on you on?”  Kaito continues to demand.

 

“I can’t tell you.  I don’t know what happened.  All I know is that if you met me now, you would think that I’m a monster.”  Shun shakes his head. He wants to start to cry.

 

“Why would I think that?”  Kaito huffs in frustration.  

 

“I’m sorry.  I called you to say goodbye.  Please tell Ruri that I love her, even if I can’t remember her.  I want to be with her again but I can’t anymore. Everything fell apart, I can’t go home.”  Shun sobs, his voice breaking multiple times as tears stream down his face endlessly. 

 

“You idiot.”  Kaito curses his name.  “How can you do this to everyone that loves you?  What are you thinking?”

 

“I met someone.”  Shun whispers. He doesn’t know what else to do.  He wants someone to know, anyone to know. “He’s not a good man.  He made me into a monster. He made me so sick that if I went home, people would never look at me the same.”

 

Kaito is quiet for a moment.  “What did he do to you?”

 

“He turned me into an experiment.”  Shun admits. “He added something to my blood.  I can’t get hurt anymore, I can’t get sick anymore.  I’m nearly invincible. He made me invincible.”

 

He hears Kaito talking under his breath, something about research.  “Can you come to me? I’ll go to you if you need me to. Let me look at you.  I’ll find out what’s wrong with you. I’ll get the lab set up.”

 

“Kaito, he wants to kill me.”  Shun warns.

 

“That doesn’t matter to me.”  Kaito promises. “I owe you. This is how I’ll repay you.”

 

Shun wants to talk more, but he sees Sora and the Twins walking around the corner.  He panics and hurriedly starts to end the call.

 

“I can’t talk anymore.”  Shun panics. “I have to go.”

 

“I’ll text you the address.  If you want to, then come find me.  I’ll be here if you need me.” Kaito promises.

 

“I will.”  Shun promises.

 

He ends the call just as Sora opens the door.  Sora pauses for a second before he gets into the car.  He eyes Shun suspiciously. 

 

“What were you doing?”  Sora questions.

 

“I was… looking at the pictures on my phone again.”  Shun lies.

 

Sora glares at him a little longer but chooses to accept Shun’s lie.  “We couldn’t find anything that can kill him. These places have a code to follow or something.  They can’t carry that kind of drug because it could kill someone.” Sora’s voice picks up a mocking tone towards the end.  “Idiots that don’t know the difference between a bottle of juice and a bottle of poison.”

 

“What are we going to do?”  Shun asks. “We need that stuff to kill Reiji.”

 

“We have to look elsewhere.”  Sora crosses his arms. “Maybe a chemical factory?”

 

“What about a laboratory?”  Shun asks.

 

“That could work.”  Sora answers. “Reiji would know if we store from his, though.  We can’t steal from him.”

 

“I know someone with a lab.”  Shun admits.

 

“I knew it.  You were talking to someone on the phone.  You’re jeopardizing all of us, you know.” Sora scolds.

 

“I… just wanted to say goodbye but it evolved into him asking me to see him at his lab.”  Shun says quietly.

 

“Because he wants to experiment on us too!”  Sora half shouts.

 

“What choice do we have?”  Shun argues. “Maybe he can help us.”

 

Sora shakes his head.  “I shouldn’t have trusted you.  Maybe this is a trap.” Sora starts to tremble.  “I can kill you, you know. Right now. I’ll just slice you in half.  Even the nanobots can’t fix that.”

 

“Don’t fight.”  The Twins mumble quietly.

 

“Don’t get involved.”  Sora snaps at him. “Shun wants to betray us.  Maybe this is his plan to kill us. He wants to lure us back to Reiji so Reiji can kill us himself.”

 

“I’m not trying to betray you!”  Shun argues. “I think he can help us.  I’ll go in alone, you don’t have to follow me.”

 

“I want to follow.”  The Twins speak up again.  “Take us with you.”

 

Sora crosses his arms, feeling frustrated and afraid.  “Why should I trust you anymore?” He questions. 

 

“Because I trust you.”  Shun says. His voice is firm and strong.  There’s not even the slightest hint of doubt in it.  He means it when he says that he trusts Sora. 

 

“I’ll give you a chance.”  Sora glares at him. “But if this is a trap, I’ll torture you until you die.”

 

Shun believes him.  He knows that he’d be too easy to torture.  He could heal from almost any blow that anyone threw at him, but that didn’t spare him any of the pain that went along with it.  He could be tortured for years and years before someone had the mercy to finally kill him.

 

Shun’s phone buzzes as he receives a message from Kaito.  It contains the address of his lab with the words ‘please come’.  Shun keys in the address into the GPS system and follows the directions that the cheery voice gives him.


	12. Grace

Sora and the Twins are quiet for the rest of the journey.  Shun knows that he has upset Sora but he doesn’t know how to repair what he’s done.  He tries to think of what to say to him, but all he can think of just sounds like dumb excuses.

 

“I’m sorry.” Is all that Shun can manage.  “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

 

Sora makes a sound that is somewhere between a dismissive grunt and a submissive ‘hmph’.  Shun hopes that means that he’s forgiven, at least enough so that Sora won’t give him the cold shoulder or another cold glare.

 

He didn’t want to admit it, but he liked Sora.  Sora has been the only person to really lighten the dark situation that they were both in.  Sora has been the only thing that has made him laugh and has made him smile since he woke up in this living nightmare.

 

Shun didn’t want to ruin it so easily and so soon.  If in the end, Shun has no one else to go to, Shun hopes that he can go to Sora.  If this is the life he has to face, one on the run and in constant fear of being caught, then he knows that Sora is the only one that can put a smile on his face while they flee for their lives.

 

It makes Shun question bringing Sora to Kaito.  He doesn’t want to lead Sora and the Twins into any more danger than they were already in.  He feels like he owes them something, simply because they trusted him even though he showed up at their door with the original intent of murdering them.  Maybe it really would be best to leave them somewhere safe while he met Kaito alone.

 

He stops the car far away enough that they won’t be seen by anyone at the lab.  It’s a small building along a row of street shops. The sign over the doors reads out ‘Tenjo Laboratory of Research’, it has to be the right place.  The lights are on in the building, Shun can see them from where he has parked the car.

 

“I’m going in.”  Shun says as he unbuckles his seatbelt.  “You two stay here. I’ll come back for you if this checks out alright.  If I don’t come back in an hour, leave and find somewhere safe to hide.”

 

Sora nods.  “Stay safe.”  He warns as Shun leaves the car.

 

Shun wants to promise that he will, but he doesn’t want to make a promise that he doesn’t know if he can keep.

 

He walks up to the building feeling self-conscious.  He feels like a criminal walking the street, afraid of a waiting cop nearby to come and arrest him.  Except in his case, Shun knows he’ll suffer something much worse than a trip to a jail somewhere.

 

He rings the doorbell outside the building.  He holds his breath as his heart starts to race.  This could be it, this could be the end of him. 

 

He watches as a man walks into the small entryway of the building.  It’s set up like a waiting room, a very small one. It seems like this place wouldn’t get many visitors so it makes sense to make such a space very small.

 

The man that walks in is blonde and shorter than Shun is.  He looks serious but like he must have a kind smile if you caught him in a good mood.  The face he makes when he sees Shun is full of relief and some disbelief, as if he can’t believe that Shun is standing outside his door.

 

“Shun.”  He sighs in relief when he opens the door.  “It’s really you. I’m so glad to see you.”

 

He doesn’t waste time, he pulls Shun into a hug which Shun struggles to return.  He doesn’t remember this man the way that this man remembered him. 

 

“Kaito?”  Shun asks, just to be sure.

 

“That’s me.”  He promises. “I’ve been worried about you.”

 

He leads Shun into another room that looks like a basic hospital room.  There’s a desk with a blood pressure monitor sitting on it along with other various tools like a thermometer and some cotton pads.  Kaito sits him down in one of the chairs by the desk before he walks over to one of the cabinets in the room.

 

“Tell me what happened.  I’ll run some tests to find out what's wrong with you.”  Kaito says.

 

“It’s a long story.”  Shun watches him warily.  “I don’t remember what happened.  I just woke up in a clinic somewhere.”

 

“Did any of the doctors or nurses tell you what happened to you?”  Kaito asks. He pulls out a needle and some gloves which he snaps on.

 

“They just said… that it was an accident.  I had massive head trauma, so they diagnosed me with amnesia.”  Shun explains. He doesn’t like the look of that needle in Kaito’s hands.

 

Kaito approaches him slowly, sensing his fear and his distrust.  “Let me check your blood. I’ll do some lab tests on it to see what’s in it.”

 

Shun pulls away, unsure and afraid.  He doesn’t want to be experimented on anymore.  He doesn’t want to be a guinea pig to anyone. Kaito takes hold of his arm, holding it firm but gently.

 

“I need to check it if you want me to help you.”  Kaito reminds. “I’ll make it quick.”

 

Shun swallows, trying to bite back the fear.  He squeezes his eyes shut as he lets Kaito draw his blood.  He feels like a child trying to be brave for the doctor, when he is really shaking on the inside.

 

He hears Kaito utter a single curse word in disbelief.  “Your blood is golden.” He gasps in awe.

 

Kaito steps back and places a hand against his forehead, as if he suddenly felt that he must be dreaming all of this up.  It had to be imaginary, it had to be make believe. How else can it explain why Shun is suddenly back in his life and how… how can it explain why the blood that ran through Shun’s veins be such a violent shimmery gold.

 

“I’m afraid that if I tell you the truth that you’ll be the next target.”  Shun whispers. “What happened to me is beyond any sense of humanity. I don’t want you or Ruri to get hurt if I tell you.”

 

“Tell me anyway.”  Kaito demands. “Whatever happened to you, it made your blood turn into gold.  I need to know why.”

 

Shun just says one word to answer Kaito.  “Nanobots.” He whispers quietly.

 

Kaito is quiet for a long moment as he absorbs the information.  He nods to himself as he considers the possibilities of it. He decides that the best way to test Shun’s blood would be under a microscope and to do a general blood test.

 

Shun watches as Kaito injects the blood onto a small microscope slide.  He slips it under the microscope’s head and onto its stage area. With the rest of the blood, Kaito injects it all into a small test tube which he then feeds into a machine in the room,

 

Kaito doesn’t say a word as he returns to his microscope.  He sits down in front of it and adjusts the knobs until the sample is in a clearer focus.

 

“I can see them.”  Kaito finally speaks.  “It’s amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

 

Kaito stares into the microscope a little longer before he beckons Shun to join him as that Shun can have a look at it too.  Shun peers into the microscope and looks at his own blood up close.

 

He can’t see the red blood cells in the sample on the slide.  They must be too small to see at this magnification. Shun, however, can see what looks like gold glitter swimming around in the red fluid.  

 

“Can you see them?”  Kaito asks. “You refuse to wear your glasses, even though you can barely see without them.”

 

“I can see fine.”  Shun states. It’s the truth, he can see perfectly clear.  “I can see the specks floating around in my blood.”

 

“Those must be the nanobots.”  Kaito notes. “The blood test will tell us more about it.  I hope, at least. It should detect foreign materials in your blood but this isn’t a parasite or virus, so I don’t know what the result will be.”

 

Shun can see that Kaito is lost in thought.  Kaito is a scientist, that much is painfully obvious to anyone.  Even without his memory, Shun knows that. Kaito thinks in terms of science and mathematics.  Whatever he’s thinking, it must go far beyond Shun’s comprehension of knowledge.

 

“You said that you can’t get hurt?”  Kaito asks. When Shun nods, he continues.  “Have you tested that theory?”

 

“Several times.”  Shun winces internally at the memory of Sora cutting into him.

 

“Did you heal quickly?  Are there scars left?” Kaito continues to question.

 

Shun wants to answer him but the trivial questions are already becoming too much to explain.  It would be easier to just show him than to sit here and explain every detail of it.

 

Shun sees a box cutter on the desk next to Kaito.  It’s obviously there to cut the tape on packaging but Shun can think of another use for it at the moment.  He grabs it and before Kaito can talk him out of it, Shun slices down his arm lengthwise. Blood spills into the floor, creating a pool of gold at Shun’s feet.  

 

“You complete idiot.”  Kaito curses. “What have you done to yourself?”

 

Shun doesn’t say anything, he just holds out his arm to show Kaito as it begins to heal.  It looks like it’s been stitched up, the blood stops dripping and the wound closes up. The scar turns froman angry, fiery red to a soft baby pink and then to nothing.

 

Yet again, Kaito is left completely speechless.  He stares at Shun’s arm with his mouth hanging open in shock.  Shun can see Kaito struggling to make sense of everything that’s happening around him, yet even with his expertise in such a subject such as this, he is unable to understand any of it.  To him, this might as well be a miracle.

 

The sound of the blood test analyser machine going off is what makes them jump out of their stupor.  Kaito shakes his head before he stands up to collect the results. He leans against the table that the machine sits on so that he can rest his body weight onto it.  He looks like he might collapse.

 

“Your…  Your white blood cell count is low.”  Kaito mumbles quietly. “And the machine detected a high number of foreign particles.”

 

“I’m not surprised.”  Shun replies.

 

“How can this be happening?  This is too advanced. We’ve only dreamed about this kind of technology that can heal like this.  This… This is like something from the future.”

 

Shun sits heavily in his chair again.  He feels exhausted. So much has happened to him and he feels like it will never end.  He just wants to be able to rest but time isn’t on his side. He has no choice but to push forward until Reiji is dead.

 

“I need something from you.”  Shun says, his voice barely above a whisper.  “A hypodermic needle and something strong enough to kill a man with one dose.”

 

“Shun…  You aren’t going to try to end things like this, are you?  We can try to find a way to cure you.” Kaito argues.

 

“I don’t want to kill myself.”  Shun retorts. Not right now, not yet.  Maybe in the future if he decides that he’s tired of being constantly afraid and in hiding.  “I want to kill the man that did this to me.”

 

Kaito is quiet, he sits in deep thought, his fingers drum against the desk as he thinks.  “Tell me, then. I want to know why you want to kill him?”

 

“He’s…  I’m not his first victim.  I’m his sixth, his fifth… I don’t even know what I am anymore.  The things that this man has done is monstrous. It’s…” Shun can’t even finish.  He becomes so choked up that he starts to cry.

 

His tears alarm Kaito.  Kaito has never seen Shun cry, despite all of the many reasons that Shun had to cry throughout his whole life, Kaito has not seen Shun shed a single tear.

 

“If you’re sure about this, I will give you what you want.”  Kaito promises. “I don’t want this traced back to me. I need to think of Haruto’s future too.”

 

Kaito pulls on a new pair of gloves so that his fingerprints won’t be left on the needle nor the small bottle of cyanide.  Kaito hesitates to hand them to Shun for a moment.

 

“I trust your judgement, Shun.”  He says as he hands the items to Shun.  “If this is what you think is best, then I won’t stand in your way.  If you change your mind about me and Ruri, we’ll always welcome you back.  You’re still Shun to us, no matter what has changed inside you.”

 

Shun nods.  “I will.”

 

Kaito lowers his head so that his eyes are staring into the floor.  “I guess I get my chance to say goodbye to you this time. I regretted not saying so when you…  when you left us. I thought I lost the chance to tell you everything I’ve been meaning to.

 

I assume you won’t remember Haruto.  He is to me what Ruri is to you. He’s always been really sickly.  He’s only been better recently, which I’m grateful for. I made the breakthrough I needed to make it all easier for him.

 

You’ve been a good friend to me and to him.  You took care of him for me when I couldn’t. You… gave me what I needed to save him too.  I owe you for that. I want you to know that I’ve extended that towards Ruri. I take care of her now, since you no longer can.  

 

It’s something that I don’t think I can ever repay you for properly.  I just hope that what I can do for you will be enough to thank you for all you’ve done for my brother and me.”

 

Shun swallows.  He’s emotional. Even though his memories are gone, he can still feel every single emotion they’ve left in his heart.  

 

“Will you tell Ruri something for me?”  Shun asks, his voice breaking.

 

Kaito nods.  “Of course.”

 

“Will you tell her that I love her?  That I want her to move on and to be happy.  I don’t want her to be sad or to miss me. I just want her to be happy.”  Shun’s voice trembles with every word. He wants to cry again. Tears end up streaming down his cheeks, despite his feeble attempts to fight them back.

 

“I’ll tell her.”  Kaito promises. “I’ll take good care of her for you.”

 

“Thank you, Kaito.  I’m glad that I got to know you…  That I knew you… You seem like you’ve always been a great friend to me.”  Shun muses quietly.

 

Kaito manages a small smile.  “It seems that way, but it wasn’t always.  I’m just glad that we ended up being friends.  You were the best that I could ask for.”

 

Shun gives him a small smile back.  They hug once before Shun leaves. He feels heavier as he walks out the door.  He had he hopes up that meeting Kaito would give him something to make him feel less burdened, but now he feels like his burdens have only gotten heavier.

 

He blames it on the poison in his hands.


	13. Avid

Shun walks back to the car, praying to himself that it will still be there when he gets back to the place that he had parked it.  He sighs in relief when he sees it, still waiting for him. He sighs a second time when he sees that both Sora and the Twins are still inside.

 

“I thought you were a goner.”  Sora says as Shun slides into the car.  His tone is more cheerful now than it was just an hour ago.

 

“I thought you were mad at me.”  Shun huffs.

 

Sora shrugs a little.  “Maybe I still am.”

 

Sora has a bag of chips in his lap.  Shun hasn’t noticed until now. He assumes that it’s the reason for Sora’s sudden spike in mood.  He also assumes that Sora must have stolen it while he was away.

 

“I’d offer you one.”  Sora says as he eats a thin chip.  It crunches loudly as he bites into it.  “But I’m still mad at you.”

 

“I got the poison.”  Shun sighs. All the trouble he went through to get it and he isn’t even allowed a bite of Sora’s snack.  Shun is starving too.

 

“Oh?”  Sora beams.  “Great! Did you get the needle too?”

 

Shun nods.  He waits a heartbeat before he raises his eyebrows.  “Well? Are you going to share?” Shun asks.

 

Sora shakes his head.

 

“You’re such a brat.”  Shun mutters under his breath.

 

“Hey, I’m not sharing.  I got you your own.” Sora pouts.  “The Twins have it in the back with them.”

 

The Twins wordlessly hand Shun the bag of crispy, delicious goodies.  It’s a little unnerving to be around the Twins, especially when they were being so silent.  However, Shun thinks that he’s getting more used to them as time goes on.

 

Shun doesn’t waste time to consume every morsel inside the foil bag.  He’s glad that he can still enjoy something as simple as potato chips.  It’s so simple, potatoes sliced thinly and deep fried in oil with plenty of salt to season them with after, but it makes the world feel like a better place.

 

“Well, I enjoy snacking as much as anyone else but we should get moving if we want to kill Reiji before he goes after Shun’s sister.”  Sora pipes up.

 

“You enjoy snacking more than anyone we’ve ever met.”  The Twins roll their eyes. 

 

Shun suppresses a snicker at the jab the Twins have just made towards Sora.  He watches as Sora pouts but still continues to eat more despite the teasing.

 

“Let’s just go find Reiji.  Then after he’s dead, we’ll steal a cake to celebrate.”  Sora suggests. Rather… It’s more of a statement. Sora would steal a cake, if not two or three of them.

 

Sora continues to chatter happily, as if they were going to a party and not to murder the man that ruined their lives.  After a while, Shun drowns his voice out. Sora’s voice is replaced by the voice of Shun’s own guilty conscious.

 

He could kill Reiji…  but wouldn’t that be the last step he had to becoming an unredeemable monster?

 

Shun doesn’t know.  It’s so frustrating to not know so much.  He feels like he knows nothing at all. He doesn’t know who he is or what he’ll become by the end of the day.  His past and future are both so blurry and unclear that it leaves Shun’s head a spinning mess of questions that he has no way of answering.

 

Sora snaps his fingers, bringing Shun’s mind back to the present.  “You have to do this, Shun. I’ll fill up the needle with a good dose but you have to go in and kill him with it.  He trusts you, so you shouldn’t have any trouble.”

 

Shun blinks as he tries to come back to reality.  They’ve already made it to the clinic that Reiji has set up in the apartment building that Shun woke up in  “Just leave it up to me.”

 

Sora nods.  “Good.” He smiles.  He starts to fill the needle with the fluid cyanide.  “One dose of this and he’ll be as good as dead. I don’t think he’ll even be able to save himself.  He’ll be in too much pain to move.”

 

Shun swallows.  Is this the right thing to do?

 

He ignores the questions in his head for now.  He has to do this. He just needs to focus and the reasons why he has to kill Reiji.  He has to kill him to save Ruri and Kaito. He has to kill him to save any future victims.  He has to kill him to protect himself and his newfound friends. He has to kill him, that’s the end of it.

 

He takes the needle from Sora and slips it into his coat pocket.  There’s a cap on the tip of it to prevent it from stabbing himself or from leaking by accident.  They can’t afford to waste any of it or to waste this chance. It has to be done right the first time.

 

Shun finds himself outside Reiji’s door before he knows it.  Time seemed to be moving so quickly and yet he felt like he is walking through quicksand.  He feels so sluggish and slow as the time speeds around the clock.

 

He lets himself into the apartment with his heart racing.  He hopes that Reiji can’t sense that there’s something extremely wrong with this entire scene.  

 

He walks down the hall but sees no trace of Reiji.  He has to be here somewhere, Shun is sure of it. He knows that Reiji is somewhere in this apartment.  Not knowing where he is makes Shun even more nervous. He worries that Reiji has caught onto the plan and that he’s laying in wait and ready to fight back.

 

Shun takes a deep breath as he opens the last door in the hallway.  He opens it to another hospital room, complete with at least a dozen different monitoring equipment piled into it.

 

In the middle of the room, there’s a hospital bed.  Laying in said bed is a small child. They can’t be much older than a toddler.  They had to be six years old at the most. Shun stares in shock at the child who is connected to all of the monitoring equipment in some way.

 

This must be Reiji’s sister, Shun realizes.  She looks so frail and sickly that Shun wishes he can just leave and unsee what he’s seen in this room.  All of the monsters that he’s met don’t even compare to how much this child frightens Shun. 

 

In comparison, Shun knows that this child is nothing compared to the monsters that Reiji has created.  However, seeing someone so weak but so young is far worse than the horrors of real life monsters.

 

“Big Brother?”  The child whimpers, her voice is barely there.  It’s like a candle flame in the wind. Shun worries that she might be blown out right in front of him.

 

Shun is left speechless.  He doesn’t know what to say or what to do.  He can’t do anything to help this frail child, no matter how much he wants to.  He isn’t even sure of whether or not he should even breathe near her because he’s so afraid that even the pressure of exhaling air near her could kill her.

 

“Big Brother, can I have some water?”  The child asks. Her eyes are still shut, she hasn’t noticed who Shun is yet.

 

Shun isn’t sure of what to do.  His mind races with questions of whether or not this is the right thing to do.  He isn’t her brother. He isn’t her doctor. He’s just a man that happened to walk into the room of a very sick little girl.

 

He decides to get her the water she asked for anyway.  He’s afraid that even a glass of water will hurt her, but if she’s asking for it then she must need it.

 

He goes into the kitchen and pours her some chilled water.  He chooses the lightest glass that he can find, since he thinks that if it’s too heavy that she’ll have trouble trying to lift it to her mouth.

 

When he returns to her, she seems to have fallen asleep.  He stands there, quietly watching over her as she breathes weakly.  Shun feels so sorry for her. She’s so frail that Shun feels as though she is only moments away from death.

 

When he compares her to himself, he feels like he’s in the better position.  He may have to carry the curse of what Reiji has done to him, but at the end of the day he’ll still be alive and maybe with the right luck he’ll even find happiness somewhere.  This child, however, may not even have the chance to enjoy one more birthday to celebrate.

 

It’s heart wrenching and unfair.  Maybe he had deserved this fate somehow.  Maybe he had been a bad man that did so many bad things that this is all karma just punching him in the face.  Someone as young and as innocent as a child doesn’t deserve this kind of punishment.

 

Shun stands with the glass still in his hand.  He isn’t sure what to do with it. He knows he should put it down and leave before Reiji can catch him in here.  He doubts that Reiji will react well to finding him here with his dying sister.

 

Shun realizes that it’s too late for that when he hears the keys in the door as they turn.  He considers trying to hide, or to leave the hide and try to act as if nothing is wrong, but his plans go out the window when he hears the door open.  Reiji will hear the door close if Shun tries to leave the room now, he’s caught like a deer in headlights.

 

Shun stands still and holds his breath as Reiji walks into the room.  Reiji’s eyes zero in on Shun. He glares angrily at Shun and for a moment, Shun thinks that Reiji is ready to kill him.

 

“How dare you enter this room?”  Reiji growls quietly. “I told you not to enter any of these rooms and you’ve defied me.”

 

“I was looking for you.”  Shun defends himself. “What’s wrong with her?”  Shun asks, motioning towards the poor, sickly little girl in the hospital bed.

 

Reiji’s eyes soften but only by a smidge.  It’s gone within a second when Reiji catches himself doing it.  Shun isn’t even sure if he saw it, but he swears that he did. 

 

Reiji walks to the side of the child’s bed.  He touches the girl’s face gently. It feels so out of place to see Reiji being so soft when Shun only knew him as a harsh and unforgivable man.  The needle in Shun’s pocket feels like it suddenly weighs a hundred pounds. He’s here to kill this man, not to discover how soft he can be.

 

“Reira is sick…  Incredibly sick. No doctor knows what’s wrong with her, not even me.”  Reiji begins quietly.

 

Shun finds it shocking that a man that can bring the dead back to life is unable to diagnose his own sister’s disease.  This man had created the nanobots that had brought Shun back to life. He created the nanobots that are keeping him alive as they speak.  Something like a diagnosis seems like it should be child’s play to him.

 

“Her blood is infected and it’s literally tearing her apart.  She’s so fragile and weak that she can’t even lift her head. Whatever is in her blood, it’s killing her slowly and painfully.  I want to save her and to heal her but I’ve found nothing that can reverse the damage done to her body.”

 

“What about the nanobots?”  Shun wonders.

 

Reiji laughs.  It’s a cold, hard and bitter sound.  “I watched what they’ve done to you. They put you into extreme pain.  They fight with your system because your system can’t recognize that they’re there to help you.  Reira is too weak for that. If I gave her what I gave to you, she wouldn’t make it.”

 

Shun is quiet for a long moment as Reiji starts to check the monitors.

 

“My hands…  I’ve done so much with them.  I know that you and the others all think that I have no guilty conscious.  I don’t think that you are wrong. I’ve done all of that because I was hoping that I’d find the answers to how I can help my sister.  I don’t regret doing what I’ve done. I would do it all again and again. To me, it doesn’t matter how I reach my goal… I just want to reach it.”  Reiji continues. “If you were in my place, you’d do the same.”

 

Shun wants to deny that, but he can’t.  He’s here to kill Reiji so that Ruri and Kaito will be safe.  He wanted to kill Reiji’s other experiments if it meant that Ruri would be safe.  He wants to deny that he’s like Reiji, but he can’t.

 

“What are you going to do?”  Shun asks. His fingers slide over the smooth plastic of the needle in his pocket.  He has to do this, he has to kill Reiji. He needs to, he just has to convince himself of that.

 

“I’ll keep searching until I find the solution.”  Reiji vows.

 

Shun looks at Reira sleeping in her bed.  She looks so sad, as if she somehow knew about Shun’s plan.  How can Shun kill a man when he is the only one that can care for this sick child?

 

Shun can’t…  As much as he knows that Reiji deserves it, as much as he knows that it would prevent him from hurting more people, as much as he knows that people are depending on him to kill Reiji…  He just can’t do it.

 

“What makes you think that you can save her?”  Shun asks. He means it, he doesn’t know why Reiji thinks that way.  

 

“I don’t think I can.”  Reiji admits. “However, if I don’t try then I’ve failed her and myself.”

 

“You’ve rebuilt my body from pieces and brought me back to life.  You’ve combined the bodies of two twins even though one was already dead.  Somehow, you’ve brought the dead back to life, so why can’t you save hers?”  Shun knows that if anyone is capable of it that Reiji is the only one that can.

 

“You think that you’re one of the first but you’re wrong.  I’ve done this to hundreds of people. I’ve been unsuccessful multiple times.  You one of the odd few that I managed to bring back.” Reiji admits. His hands turn to fists at his sides.  “I’m not a miracle worker. All I’ve done is managed a two percent success rate.”

 

Shun stares into the ground.  He wants to save Reira if he can.  If he can save Reira, then he can kill Reiji with a clean conscious.

 

“What if I helped you save her?”  Shun asks. “I know someone that might be able to help you.”

 

“I thought that you had lost your memories.”  Reiji eyes him suspiciously.

 

“I found my phone in the other room.”  Shun reveals. “It has phone numbers in it.  I called one and he’s a researcher at a clinic.  Maybe he can help you.”

 

“I don’t need help.”  Reiji argues.

 

“Whatever you’re doing isn’t working.  What if this is the chance you need to find your solution?  Is it worth it to risk your sister’s life over your own pride?”  Shun fights back.

 

Reiji is quiet for a long moment before he speaks.  “No, it isn’t. I’ll allow you to take me to this person.  However, you know me well enough to know that I’ll kill him if you’re just trying to lead me into a trap.”

 

Shun wants to scream in frustration.  Why does everyone always suspect him of trying to lead them into a trap whenever he wants them to meet Kaito? 

 

“I promise that I’m not leading you into a trap.”  Shun tries not to sound irritated. “I’m trying to help a child get better.”

 

Reiji gives Shun that same bitter laugh.  “I’ll wait here for you. Come back when it’s dark out again.  I have to take care of my sister until then. After all, your friends are waiting for you in the car.  You don’t want to make them wait.”

 

Shun’s mouth falls open in shock.  How did Reiji know?

 

“I know about the cyanide in your pocket too.  You don’t have the guts to kill me. You’re too soft hearted.  If you weren’t, you’d have already killed my previous experiments.”  Reiji smirks a little. “Now leave. I have tests to run.”

 

Shun does exactly that.  He leaves quickly, not wanting to be anywhere near Reiji at the moment.  He knew the whole time but he did nothing. Shun doesn’t want to be around if Reiji decides that he wants to fight back.


	14. Burn

When Shun gets to the car, Sora and the Twins perk up after falling half asleep while waiting for him.

 

Shun wastes no time to put the car back into drive.  “He knew I had the needle. We need to go.” Is all he says of the situation.  The other two didn’t need to know of his plans to meet Reiji again.

 

“Do you think he’ll follow us?”  The Twins panic.

 

“He won’t.  His sister is there.  She’s sick, really sick.”  Shun answers briskly. “I don’t think he can go anywhere right now.”

 

Sora curses under his breath.  “He’ll come looking for us.” 

 

“He won’t.”  Shun shakes his head.  “He just wants me. I’ll leave you both somewhere safe and I’ll go off on my own.  He won’t try to find you.”

 

“Why do you think that’s a good plan?”  Sora argues. “You want to face him alone?”

 

“What choice do I have if I want to protect the only two friends that I have left?”  Shun snaps back.

 

“We’re your friends.”  Sora confirms. They have only known each other for a few short days but when you were all suffering the same burden, it becomes so easy to make friends with each other  “We want to protect you too.”

 

Shun wants to cry out in frustration again.  Everything is so complicated and infuriating.  He can’t catch a single break, no matter how much he tries to do the best thing he can do in the situation fate has stranded him in.

 

“I want to help Reiji’s sister.”  Shun admits, exasperated. “Is that wrong of me?  I know that Reiji is terrible and awful but I know that if I were him, I’d be as terrible and as awful as he is.”

 

“So you don’t want to kill him, then?”  Sora demands to know.

 

“I don’t know that yet.  I just don’t want to leave that little girl alone.  She doesn’t deserve that. If we kill Reiji, we’re destroying her life too.”

 

“He destroyed all of our lives.”  Sora argues angrily. “But you want to spare him?”

 

“I don’t care about Reiji!”  Shun exclaims. “I care about a sick little girl!”

 

Sora looks like he’s ready to start crying.  “You’ve blown our last chance.” He mumbles through the lump forming in his throat.  “That’s it, then. We can’t kill him now.”

 

“This is our chance to do something right.”  Shun starts. “If we kill Reiji, we’re only doing more wrong.  If we save this child, then we’ve made the world a better place.”

 

Sora is quiet as he scrubs the tears from his face.  “I trusted you.” He mumbles. “I trusted you before, and I’ll trust you again now.  Just don’t mess this up for us all.”

 

Shun wants to promise that he won’t, but he can’t.  He doesn’t know what the outcome of this will be. All he can do is hope for the best.

 

“What are you going to do?”  Sora wonders.

 

“I’m going to take Reiji to meet Kaito.  I think that Kaito might be able to help him.  It’s a shot in the dark but I want to try.”

 

Sora doesn’t say much.  He sits and stares out the window he as considers what Shun has just told him.  “I want to go with you.” He eventually says.

 

“Why?”  Shun asks.  “I thought that you didn’t like my plan.”

 

“I think that you’re right.  I’m a doctor too. It’s my job to save lives, not to take them away.”  Sora sighs. “I need to do what’s right.”

 

“We want to go too.”  The Twins agree.

 

“If you want to, I won’t stop you.”  Shun promises. “We’ll go tonight to pick up Reiji.”

 

“Sounds like a plan.”  Sora leans back in the passenger seat.  “Let’s go get some sleep in the meantime.”

 

Shun gladly agrees with that idea.  He really needs to get some sleep and some proper food in his stomach.  Tonight would be another long one, no matter what it led too. Shun wants the best, even at his own expense.  He wants to help Reira in whatever way he can. Maybe he can’t save his own future, but he can try his hardest to save hers.

 

They end up at Sora’s place, again.  Shun lets the Twins take the couch while he ends up on the floor by Sora’s bed.  He lays awake for a little while, unable to sleep. He ends up texting Kaito, asking to meet him again when it got dark out.  

 

“Why do you think that you’re like Reiji?”  Sora wonders outloud. Shun had thought that he was asleep.

 

Shun thinks for a few heartbeats.  “I think that… we aren’t alike. Not really.  I just think that, as a brother, I can understand the desperation of wanting to take care of your family.”

 

“You don’t even remember your family.”  Sora points out.

 

“I still feel it.”  Shun explains. “I can feel my love for my sister, even if I don’t remember her.  I still feel like I have to protect her. That’s why I let Reiji manipulate me into coming here to kill you.  Because he threatened her.”

 

“I never had much of a family.”  Sora sighs. “So I don’t understand how you feel.”

 

Shun doesn’t know how to respond to that.  All he can do is feel sorry for Sora. His life seems like it must have been so lonely and so empty.  Even now, it’s continued to be that way.

 

“After all this is over, do you want to…”  Shun trails off, unsure of how to finish.

 

“... Be friends?”  Sora finishes for him.

 

“Yeah…that…”  Shun agrees.

 

He can’t see Sora smiling from where he lays but he can hear it in Sora’s voice when Sora talks.  “Of course!”

 

It’s comforting for Shun to know that he will still have someone to stay with when the time comes down to it.  He won’t have to be lonely and neither will Sora. They’ll have each other and hopefully maybe the Twins will stick with them too.  It’s a makeshift family, but Shun feels happy with it. He couldn’t have asked for better.

 

He knows he’ll always miss Ruri.  He hates that he doesn’t have memories of her to miss her by.  He wishes he could remember something, even something small like her laugh or something negative like a fight between them.  He worries that he’ll end up forgetting her completely, that his heart will stop remembering her.

 

He wishes that he can meet her again, one last time.  He just wants to see her, not to talk to her or to go near her.  He doesn’t want to scare her or upset her if she saw him. For all she knows, he’s gone.  If he went back to her, even to say goodbye, he’s afraid that he’d break her heart even more.

 

Eventually, Shun falls into a restless sleep.  He tosses and turns until he starts to dream. 

 

It starts out like any normal dream.  He’s in a vaguely familiar room with generic furniture that could be in anyone’s living room.  He looks around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. 

 

“Shun?” A soft voice calls out.  “Can you pick up some fresh eggs on your way out?  I need some to make breakfast tomorrow.”

 

Shun turns to see Ruri standing there.  Her hair is wet as if she has just showered.  She's wearing a pale yellow night dress and house slippers.  She's looks so real that Shun feels like he's really talking to her.

 

“Yeah.” Shun answers.  He's not in control of his words.  They fall from his mouth like he's a video game character reading their dialogue for a quest.

 

Ruri smiles.  “Don't come back home too late.  It's going to rain.”

 

“I'll be fine.”  Shun promises. “Don't worry.”

 

Shun wants to scream at her.  He wants to tell her that he misses her and that he wants to go back home to her. He can't, he's speaking without his own accord.  He's stuck acting out the dream as it plays out.

 

He walks to a small store on the corner of the street that's only two blocks away from home.  He grabs the eggs and some instant coffee. He buys them both along with a scratch off lottery ticket.  He plays it before he leaves, frowning when he wins nothing.

 

Sure enough, when he heads back out, it's pouring heavy rain.  He sighs and tries to shield his head with his coat as he jogs back home.

 

He's not even more than a few feet from the entrance to his apartment building when his eyes catch something moving in the shadows.  Shun stops for just a moment to investigate out of curiosity. At first he thinks it's his neighbor’s cat that must have escaped again.  When he looks closer, he finds that it's another man.

“I'm rather lost.  Can you help me?” The man asks.

 

Shun recognizes him as Reiji.  He feels his heart drop and his stomach sink as he realizes that this isn't a dream, it's a memory.  This is the part where he dies.

 

Shun wants to tell at himself to run but this is a memory, he can't change it.

 

“Where are you headed?” Shun asks.

 

Reiji points off in the distance.  “Downtown.”

 

Shun rubs some water from his eyes as the rain pours harder.  “You need to take a left at the end of the street. Then from there you just go straight.  If you're lucky, you can catch the last bus.”

 

Reiji smiles.  “Thank you.” He says as he steps from the shadows.  “Let me repay you.”

 

Shun stares at his hands.  There's something that he’s holding, it looks heavy and blunt.  Shun takes a step back in fear. He finally realizes that Reiji wants to hurt him but it’s too late.  He can't run anymore. He turns to try to run but the ground is slick with rain water so he slips and falls.  That is when Reiji hits him in the head with the object in his hand.

 

Shun is suddenly very aware of the pain he feels as his vision fades to black.  He must have still been alive at this point, he thinks. He feels more pain as Reiji begins to cut him into pieces.  He wonders how he lived through all of this. Why didn't his body just give up on fighting all of this pain? Why didn't he just die and stay dead?

 

When Shun opens his eyes, he's back in Sora's bedroom.  He's sweating through all his clothes. He can hear Sora’s a soft breathing as he sleeps.  Shun focuses on that, following Sora’s pace until his heart has slowed to a normal pace.

 

Reiji really had killed him.  Shun wanted to try and ignore that.  He wanted to believe that it wasn't true but it is.  Reiji had killed him when he was only steps away from being home again.

It’s shocking to relive the moments leading up to his death.  Of all the things to remember, why did he have to remember that?

 

“Shun?”  Sora mumbles, still half asleep.  “What happened? You're soaked.”

 

“I had a weird dream.” Shun replies.

 

“Gross.”  Sora mutters.  “Do you have to do that next to me?”

 

“Not that kind of dream…”  Shun sighs, annoyed. He rubs at his eyes.  “I had a nightmare.”

 

“I get those all the time now.”  Sora shrugs. “You get used to it.”

 

“This was like a memory.  Like the ones that I've lost.” Shun explains.

 

“Oh.”  Sora squeaks.  “What made it a nightmare then?”

 

“It was a memory of how I died.”

 

“That does sound like a nightmare…” Sora muses.  He’s silent for a few seconds before he speaks again.  “Do you want to… sleep next to me? So you don’t have to worry so much?”

 

Shun isn’t sure if he heard right for a second.  Sora has just offered to share his bed with Shun and to be honest, Shun wanted to.  

 

“Okay.”  Shun accepts the invitation.  “Why not?”

 

He climbs into Sora’s bed, trying carefully not to touch Sora or to take up too much space.  It’s so much more comfortable than the floor, the bed is soft and warm unlike the cold, hard floor.

 

“Better?”  Sora asks. His voice is barely above a whisper.  

 

“Yeah.”  Shun answers.  

 

They’re both quiet for a long moment before Shun hears Sora’s soft snoring pick back up.  He sighs to himself as he tries to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. He feels wide awake now, as if he’s never known sleep before.

 

Shun closes his eyes and prays for some rest.  He feels something wrap around his chest. When he opens his eyes in shock, he finds Sora’s arm wrapped around him.  At first, Shun feels uncomfortable about it. It feels too intimate and he feels like he’s over stepping boundaries. Yet, it feels so nice to be held like this.  

 

It’s Sora’s embrace that lulls Shun into a peaceful sleep.  He doesn’t dream anymore, at least not of nightmares. He stays aware of Sora’s arm hugging him throughout the whole time that he sleeps.  It’s a reminder that he’s safe and not alone.


	15. Revolution

Shun gets jolted awake by his phone ringing loudly.  Sora jumps too, jumping again when he realizes that he’s been holding Shun this entire time.  Sora blushes a bright red and pulls his hair down to cover his face.

 

“What is that?”  Sora mumbles, still embarrassed to have caught himself holding the other boy.

 

“My phone is ringing.”  Shun panics. 

 

He gropes the bed stand to look for it.  It takes him a few seconds to find it. He prays that it won’t stop ringing before he gets the chance to answer it.

 

“It’s Kaito.”  Shun realizes. 

 

“Answer it, then.”  Sora encourages. 

 

Shun hits the answer button.  “Kaito?”

 

“You wanted to meet me at the lab again?  Did something happen?” Kaito demands to know.

 

“Yeah.  I have a patient for you.”  Shun explains.

 

“Another?”  Kaito asks.

 

“A child.  She’s really sick, Kaito.  I want to help her but I don’t know where to go.”

 

“Bring her here.”  Kaito orders. “I’ll see what I can do for her.”

 

“I will.”  Shun promises.  He hangs up and turns back to Sora.  “Let’s go get her.”

 

Sora nods.  “I’ll get the Twins and we’ll meet you at the car.”

 

They drive in silence along the empty roads.  There’s no light hearted joking tonight. They were on their way to try to help a sick little girl.  None of them want to think of how badly this can all go. When they do think of it, they realize that there’s so much that can go wrong.  It’s easier to not think at all.

 

Shun decides that it would be best to leave Sora and the Twins at Kaito’s lab for the time being.  He doesn’t want Reiji to feel any need to be suspicious of them. He knows he has to go alone if he wants Reiji to trust them all.

 

Kaito’s shock when he meets the Twins is obvious.  He looks so pale that Shun worries that he’ll pass out.  Kaito shakes himself off somehow and leads the Twins and Sora into another room while Shun hits the road again.

 

When he gets to Reiji’s clinic, he knocks on the door rather than use the key he has to open it himself.  Reiji answers and gives no greetings to Shun. He simply motions for Shun to follow him into Reira’s hospital room.

 

“I’ll carry her myself.”  Reiji stands firmly. 

 

“Alright.”  Shun agrees.  

 

Shun watches as Reiji carefully lifts Reira into his arms.  He shields her face with her blanket so she won’t have to be exposed to the too bright lights in the other room.  Reira clutches a teddy bear to her chest as she is carried to the car.

 

Reiji carefully lays her down in the backseats of the car.  He checks over her once to ensure that she’s not in any pain or discomfort.

 

“Let’s go.”  He commands as he climbs into the passenger seat of the vehicle.  “I’m putting my trust into you, Shun. Do not disappoint me.”

 

“I’m doing this for her, not for you.”  Shun says. “She’s my priority. I won’t hurt her.”

 

Shun tries to stay true to his word.  When he drives, he drives slower than usual so that Reira won’t be jostled about in the backseats.  He even tries to steer the car so that the street lights won’t shine onto her face.

 

Shun stops right outside Kaito’s lab.  He climbs out of the car so that he can knock on the glass door to let Kaito know that they’ve arrived.  It takes a few moments but Kaito finally comes to the door to open it for them.

 

“Is this the patient?”  Kaito asks as he watches Reiji carry her from the car.

 

“Yes.”  Shun answers.  “Do you think you can help her?”

 

Kaito thinks for a moment.  “I’ll have to see her first before I’ll know for sure.”

 

Kaito leads them into a private room further into the back of the lab.  It’s filled with monitoring equipment, much like Reiji’s clinic is filled with.  Reiji lays Reira onto the bed in the middle of the room. He gently makes sure that she’s comfortable before he explains her sickness to Kaito.

 

“I believe that it’s a blood infection of some kind.”  Reiji begins. “It’s weakened her so completely that it’s done severe damage to her body tissue and organs.  I’ve read all that I can about diseases like this one, but nothing mimics it quite the same. None of the treatment methods I’ve researched have worked on her.  It only makes it worse.”

 

Kaito nods as he takes the information in.  “Have you noticed anything significant about her blood tests?”

 

“I’ve searched for any foreign bodies within it but I’ve found nothing out of the ordinary.”  

 

“Do you think it’s possible that her blood cells are the ones causing the disease?”  Kaito questions. 

 

“What do you mean?”  Reiji asks.

 

“I’ve seen a case similar to hers before.  It’s a disease that’s very rare and very hard to trace.  Even if you can diagnose it, the treatment for it is mediocre at best.”  Kaito explains. “I think that there’s a possibility that her own white blood cells are attacking her body.”

 

“What is the treatment for that?”  Reiji questions.

 

Kaito is quiet once more.  He thinks for a long moment before he starts to speak again.  “I’ve tried this only once so I do not know if it will work a second time.  I take blood from a willing party and then I collect the white blood cells from the blood so that I can get a concentrated dosage of it.  Then I introduce that into the patient’s bloodstream. 

 

If it works, the new white blood cells will fight the old ones.  The old ones are already weakened from the body slowly dying. If we’re successful, the new white blood cells will train the old ones to behave like them.  Then they would function like normal white blood cells.”

 

“I’m sure that there must be complications.”  Reiji says.

 

“There’s a lot of them.”  Kaito admits. “The body may reject the new white blood cells totally, that in itself could destroy the body.  That’s if it fails. If it succeeds, we still have problems we’ll have to face. The body is in a very weak state.  To recover from that will take time. 

 

It’s worth a shot.  It’s the only hope we have left.”

 

“What happened to the patient that you tested this on?”  Reiji wonders.

 

“That patient is my own brother.  He was like her before. I gave him the treatment and with God’s blessings, he’s recovered.  He’s a normal, happy child now.”

 

Reiji purses his lips while he considers the risks and whether they were worth taking.  He glances back at his little sister and decides that it’s the only chance they have left.

 

“I’ll do whatever you think is best for her.”  Reiji says, finally. “You can use my blood for this.  My blood is compatible with hers.”

 

Kaito stands to gather some supplies to bring into the other room so he can safely take some blood from Reiji.  “When my brother was sick, I wasn’t compatible with him. I was lucky enough to have Shun. He gave me enough to help save my brother.”

 

Reiji doesn’t respond but Shun can see the slightest hint of guilt flash in Reiji’s eyes.  He watches as Reiji and Kaito both leave the room quietly to begin the process of healing Reira.

 

Shun stays to watch over the young child.  She sleeps quietly, stirring only slightly every now and then.  Shun’s eyes stay glued to her until he becomes distracted when Sora walks into the room.

 

“The Twins aren’t doing too good.”  Sora sighs. “I managed to convince them to go get some more sleep.”

 

“I guess Kaito didn’t take it very well when he met them.”  Shun assumes.

 

“He’s very welcoming.  He did some tests on us.  He did an x-ray scan on me and nearly passed out when he saw all the weapons inside of me.  It was pretty funny, actually.”

 

“Do the weapons even function?”  Shun questions. “You always talk about them but I haven’t seen you use them.”

 

Sora’s face turns a little pink.  “They mostly just hurt. I can’t really use them, they just kind of sit in my body and hang out.”

 

“That sucks.”  Shun huffs.

 

“Yeah, it hurts to breathe because the saw pokes into my organs.”  Sora sighs. “They’ve fused with my body tissue so removing them is complicated.  Kaito thinks he can remove them for me, though.”

 

“Really?”  Shun gasps.  “Then you’d be fine again.”

 

“Sort of.”  Sora shrugs.  “If it works. That’s why the Twins are having a hard time.  Kaito thinks that he can fix me but there’s nothing he can do for the Twins.  They didn’t take it well.”

 

“Are you going to go for it?”  Shun asks. 

 

“I… want to.”  Sora admits. “I know that it will be difficult but I want to try it.”

 

Shun feels happy for Sora, even though he himself has no cure for what runs through his blood.  He gives Sora a small smile. “I think it’s a great idea.”

 

Sora smiles back at him.  He starts to say something which makes his cheeks turn a deeper shade of pink but by now Kaito has returned to the room.

 

“Shun.”  Kaito begins.  “Is that the man that did this to you?”  

 

Shun just nods his answer.

 

Kaito shakes his head disapprovingly.  “I knew you were always soft on the inside but to help the man that took you from us, it’s still shocking to me.”

 

“I’m helping the child, not him.”  Shun reminds.

 

“Still.”  Kaito sighs.  “I’m hoping this will work for the kid’s sake.  As for him, I don’t care what happens to him at this point.”

 

“None of us do.”  Sora pipes in. “We want him dead, anyway.”

 

The room goes quiet again.  No one wants to talk anymore, it’s exhausting to try to continue a conversation like this one.  No one wants to put their focus on Reiji at the moment.

 

“What was Shun like before all of this?”  Sora asks suddenly, breaking the silence. “Was he always as annoying as he is now?”

 

Kaito chuckles a little.  “You could say that.” He breathes out a long sigh then.  “He’s a good friend. He’s a really caring person. You can see it even now, despite all of the changes.”  

 

Shun expects Sora to snort in disagreement but instead, Sora nods his head.  “Yeah, I can see that.”

 

Shun blinks in shock.  Did Sora really think that way about him?  It’s comforting in a lot of ways, but it’s still takes him aback.  Shun smiles a small smile to himself at the thought of Sora thinking of him so highly.

 

When Sora catches Shun’s smile, he turns pink and twists himself away until Shun can no longer see his face.

 

“This will be a long process.”  Kaito sighs and scratches his temple.  “Why don’t you both go rest?”

 

Although it sounds like a friendly suggestion, both Shun and Sora can hear the less than subtle ‘I need space to work so leave’ in Kaito’s voice.  They both leave the room and find somewhere else to wait to hear more news about Reira.


	16. Immune

It’s a long wait to hear about any new developments.  Shun, Sora and the Twins lounge in a private waiting room for hours, drifting in and out of sleep, while they wait.  Sometimes they talk here and there, but it’s mostly nonsensical jabber between their short naps.

 

Sora and the Twins are all asleep when Kaito comes in to tap Shun on the shoulder.  He motions for Shun to follow him into another room so they can talk without being overheard or interrupted. 

 

“I’ve been speaking to Reiji about you.”  Kaito says. He looks tired, his sleeves are rolled up past his elbows and his hair is an unruly mess.   “I think, no… We think that we can remove the nanobots from your system.”

 

Shun’s eyes widen in disbelief.  He can’t help but feel hopeful and excited by the idea of being returned back to normal.  He has a chance of going home, of a future again. “Really? How?”

 

“I want to try dialysis.”  Kaito reveals. “I’m hoping that it will remove the nanobots and clean out your blood.  My main concern, aside from it not working, is that you’ll be weakened since your white blood cells aren’t in their best condition anymore.  You’d have to be quarantined until I know for sure whether or not you’re stable enough to be around people.”

 

“If it works, I’ll be normal again, right?”  Shun demands to know impatiently. 

 

“Yes.”  Kaito nods.  “Out of you and your friends, I think you have the highest chance of returning to normal again.”

 

Shun breaks out into a beaming smile.  He hugs Kaito tight in his arms which Kaito struggles to return since his arms have been pinned to his sides.  

 

“I need to go back to check on the kid.”  Kaito mutters, embarrassed by Shun’s bear hug.  Kaito has never been the type of person to show affection so easily without feeling at least a bit embarrassed by it.  “She’s doing really well so far. Better than Haruto did, even. I’m impressed.”

 

He starts to leave when Shun lets go of him but he stops in his tracks when he’s halfway out the door.  “I don’t want to get your hopes up… or their hopes up. I think that if things go well with Reira, that Reiji might decide to undo the damage he’s done to his victims.”  Kaito takes a deep breath before he sighs it back out in a frustrated sigh. “I can’t fix the majority of what he’s done. That’s something only he can do. I think he’s starting to see that he can repair the damage he’s done.  If Reira recovers, then I’m praying that he’ll do the right thing just like you all did with him.”

 

Shun is too shocked to form a response before Kaito walks away.  He stands alone in the empty room as he tries to absorb the news.  Maybe, just maybe, they could all have a happy, fulfilling future.

 

He wants that for all of them.


	17. Entice

Days pass which make the moments of watching Reira’s eyes flutter open feel like a much awaited miracle in itself.  Shun honestly thought that she wouldn’t survive through this whole ordeal but she proved that she could. She blinks once, confused and overwhelmed by everything around her.

 

“How are you feeling?”  Reiji asks her, softly. His hand finds hers which he gives a gentle squeeze of reassurance.  

 

“Better.”  She mumbles quietly.  Her fingers begin to fidget with the blanket as she notices the strangers by her bed.

 

“I’m your Doctor, Reira.  I’ve been trying to help you feel better.”  Kaito introduces himself. “I’m glad to see that you’re awake now, you were asleep for a few days.  That means that you’ve made it through the worst of the treatment. From now on, things will be easier.”  He promises.

 

Reira smiles a little, it’s just a slight tilt of her lips.  “R-really?” Kaito nods at her and her smile widens. “Big Brother, I’m going to be better.”

 

Reiji smiles at her, he really smiles at her in a way that Shun has never seen him smile before.  Shun didn’t even think that Reiji had it in him to smile this big and this bright but here he is, smiling as if he has had all the weight of the world lifted off of him.  To be honest, watching his little sister get better must feel that way to him.

 

“I want to thank you both for this.”  Reiji says when they leave the room to let Reira sleep some more since her rest is so vital while she recovers.  “You’ve saved her life.”

 

“It’s my job to help people like her.”  Kaito says, pointedly. “Doctors are supposed to help people and give them a better life.”

 

Reiji is quiet for a moment.  “I regret what I’ve done to everyone.”  He whispers in shame. “I did it when I thought I had no choice if I wanted to save her.”

 

“That doesn’t change the past.”  Shun sighs, exhausted by all of this.  

 

“I can try to change the future.”  Reiji thinks out loud. “I can reverse the effects, it will take time but I have what I need to fix everyone.  Perhaps if… Kaito is willing to assist me, we can do what’s right.”

 

“I’ll do that.  I’ll do whatever it takes to get Shun back.”  Kaito agrees.

 

“It’s settled then.”  Reiji nods. 

 

Shun’s recovery starts out with the dialysis that Kaito had promised him about earlier.  It takes a few sessions to fully clean out Shun’s blood but Shun doesn’t care about the number of times he has to go through it, as long as it worked out in the end.  It’s tiring but in the end, it’s worth it just to have his blood be blood again instead of an experiment.

 

When Kaito takes a sample of his blood after the third round,  Shun’s blood is back to a beautiful, ruby red. Shun sighs in relief at the sight of it.  He feels so freed and so happy that he starts to cry at the sight of it. He never thought that anyone could ever be this happy to see the sight of their own blood.

 

Of course, his battle doesn’t end there.  He’s put into quarantine as soon as his blood has been declared nanobot free.  All he’s allowed to do is lay in bed without anyone to talk to aside from Kaito when he came around to check on Shun’s vitals.  All Shun wants is to ask about the others, the Twins and Sora especially. He wants to know if they made it too.

 

“It’s a complicated process.”  Kaito tells him one day. He looks absolutely drained of energy.  He has bags under his eyes and he’s paler than usual. He looks happy, despite all of that.  “Sora is recovering but he’s in for the worst of it. His body took a lot of damage from the blades Reiji put inside of him.  The Twins are recovering slowly. I don’t know why Reiji decided to keep the… other halves of them but it means that they get to be separate and on their own again.”

 

Shun considers asking about Yuuri and Dennis, but he doesn’t really care for them.  He heard Kaito mention them once or twice in passing, saying that they were also recovering but that they had left as soon as they could run out the doors on their own two feet.

 

When Kaito thinks that Shun is well enough to be exposed to the environment and other people again, he allows Shun to walk around the clinic.  It’s a little overwhelming to Shun while he tries to get used to be normal again. Somehow being normal feels abnormal now. 

 

He spent days thinking that his life was just about over and now he has his life back again.  It’s funny how in such a short time, you could accept that you’d lost it all. Now that he has it all back again, he isn’t sure what to do about it.

 

Shun’s glad when he sees Sora in a wheelchair rolling his way around the hallways.  Sora struggles to wheel himself around but he manages. His entire chest is wrapped up in bandages along with his wrists.  He looks more like he’s in a cheap mummy costume than someone that got out of surgery a few weeks ago.

 

“You look good.”  Shun says when they bump into each other.

 

“I feel good.”  Sora answers. He looks a little sad but Shun doesn’t exactly know why.   “Are you going home to your sister soon?”

 

“Kaito gave me the go ahead.  He told her that I’ve been sick but I didn’t want to tell anyone.  She’s apparently mad at me but Kaito said that she’d get over it as soon as she saw me in person again.”  Shun shrugs.

 

“Do you have your memories back?”  Sora wonders.

 

Shun shakes his head as a ‘no’.

 

“That sucks.”  Sora huffs.

 

“Yeah, it does.”  Shun sighs. “Kaito thinks that I might get pieces of it back, but he’s not very optimistic about it.”

 

“Hey um…”  Sora mumbles.  “Do you remember when you wanted to stay with me after we killed Reiji?”  Sora asks quietly.

 

“Yeah.”  Shun recalls.  “Why?”

 

“Is that… still something you want?  Can I stay with you this time?” Sora’s eyes stay planted to the ground as his cheeks heat to a fiery red.

 

Shun smiles brightly.  “I’d like that.”


	18. Love

Going home to Ruri gives Shun so many rushing waves of emotion that it makes him feel like he’s going to be sick.  He misses her more than anything, he knows that. He knows that he loves her too. He just worries that maybe she’ll notice a difference in him that she won’t like.  He doesn’t remember their past together and he’s afraid that it will hurt them both.

 

Sora squeezes his hand tightly.  They’ve both made a clean recovery, according to both Kaito and Reiji.  They gave both him and Sora a clean bill of health and told them that they were free to go home again.  Shun had impatiently waited for the day to come but now that it’s here, he feels nothing but nervous.

 

“You’ll be okay.”  Sora says reassuringly with a small smile.  “It’s just your sister, it’s not like you’re going to go meet a monster or something.”

 

“No, actually…  When I think about it.  This is somehow much worse.”  Shun frowns.

 

“Well, she can’t kill you.  She’s just your sister.” 

 

“I don’t want to disappoint her, that’s all.”  Shun admits.

 

“You won’t.  You’re her brother.  She loves you.”

 

“Hey, you know, you’re actually kind of sweet when you’re not being a brat.”  Shun teases.

 

“I guess…  I should take that as a compliment?”  Sora wonders.

 

“Well…”  Shun muses.  “I guess it is one.”

 

“Gee, thanks.”  Sora shoots Shun a sarcastic grin.  “You’re not so bad yourself. Too bad that Kaito couldn’t fix your freakishly tall size.”

 

“You like that I’m tall.”  Shun reminds.

 

Sora’s cheek turn pink.  “Well… maybe I do…”

 

They said goodbye to Reiji before they left.  Reira is better and happier, which made Shun feel like he’d done the right things and made the right choices.  She is what Shun fought for in the end, it wasn’t for his sake or for anyone else’s. In the end, he did what he did for her, not for himself.

 

He didn’t expect a reward for it, but he’s glad that Reiji decided to fix them all and undo his mistakes.  Even if nothing had changed, as long as he had somehow helped Reira then Shun would still be just as happy.

 

Reiji had thanked him one last time before they left.  It was a true, genuine and heartfelt gesture. Shun could hear it in Reiji’s voice as he said the words ‘thank you’.  

 

Shun is glad that they managed to leave things off in a good place between them.  Reiji may have hurt him but Shun knows that it was just fate’s way of helping Reira.  He can’t be angry or upset by that, not when he’s seen how much Reira has improved.

 

Shun is also glad that he and the Twins will remain friends.  The Twins look so much happier now, they’re two separate people again.  Yuuya is a bouncier, more jovial person now. Yuuto, on the other hand, is still quiet.  Shun, however, caught him smiling once or twice, a small and sneaky smile that showed how happy he is to be back to normal with his brother still with him.

 

Shun knows that Yuuri and Dennis are both better.  Kaito and Reiji removed the parasitic plant from Yuuri’s body and they reconstructed Dennis’ face to make him look good as new again.  They even gave him the sharper cheekbones that he wanted in the first place. The last Shun heard of them, they had gone off to spend their lives together far away from Reiji.

 

Mostly, Shun feels happy that he and Sora are still friends.  He doesn’t think that ‘friends’ is really the right word anymore or if it was ever the best word to use for them.  He thinks that they’re beyond that. He won’t push it, though. If Sora wants to be lovers, then it will work its way out on its own eventually.

 

They hold each other’s hand as they return home to Ruri.  Her smile is nearly as blinding as the tears in Shun’s eyes when he sees her again.

 

Ruri runs to pull Shun into her arms to hug him tighter than he even hugged Kaito in the lab.  She hugs him with all of those feelings that she had been holding in her heart since he had disappeared on her.  He’s more than just a brother to her, he’s her father and mother too. He’s the only family she has, losing means that she’d be all alone in this world.

 

That hug lasts for ten seconds before she pulls back to smack Shun hard in the arm.  “You bird brain!” She scolds. “I was worried about you! Why didn’t you just say that you were sick?  I would have taken care of you!”

 

“I didn’t want to distract you from your studies.”  Shun rubs the spot on his arm where she had hit him.  She hit pretty hard for a person of her size.

 

“It’s better than making me lay awake at night worried about you!”  She scolds. She takes a long, deep breath to center herself. “I just missed you so much.  I’m so happy to see you again.”

 

“I’m happy to be home with you.”  Shun smiles. He feels so much better to be back where he belongs.

 

“Who is your friend?”  Ruri asks, finally noticing the small boy by Shun’s side.

 

Shun scrambles for a way to introduce Sora to his sister.  “Umm… He’s…” Shun blinks, trying to think.

 

“I’m his new boyfriend.”  Sora smiles at Ruri. “We met at the clinic we were both in.”

 

Ruri smiles while Shun feels floored.  Shun can feel his entire face and neck turn bright red simply because Sora said the word ‘boyfriend’.

 

“Oh.”  Ruri’s eyes sparkle at the news.  “Shun’s first partner.”

 

“First?”  Sora beams.  “I didn’t know that.”

 

“Let me tell you all about him, then.”  Ruri smirks. “All the embarrassing things about him.  It’s payback for all the times he embarrassed me in front of my girlfriend.”

 

Sora laughs and let’s Ruri lead him off to the kitchen to gossip over freshly brewed tea.  Shun shakes his head as he watches them walk away.

 

He walks around the small apartment, picking up small things that he finds along the way.  This is where he used to live… No… This is where he still lives. This is his home. This is where he loves with his little sister.  This is where he’ll live with his new boyfriend that he somehow managed to find in this huge mess.

 

He ends up in his bedroom.   There’s pictures in frames on a bookshelf.  There’s pictures of him and Ruri as kids and a more recent picture of them at a zoo.  There’s also a picture of them with two people who must be their mom and dad. Shun sees a picture that must be his senior year photo.  He silently sets that frame picture side down so he doesn’t have to look at it anymore. Why did he keep that picture anyway?

 

He goes through his drawers, grateful to find his own clothes in them.  There’s a bunch of old t-shirts that are worn out. They’re all soft to the touch with holes in some of them.  They smell clean, thankfully. Shun’s glad that he at least washes them. Maybe Ruri made him wash them. What did he even know?

 

He can hear Ruri and Sora laughing in the other room.  He smiles to himself as he sits on the end of his bed. He feels so happy to be home.  He has his sister back, his home back, he even has Kaito back. Now he has a boyfriend in Sora, friends in Yuuto and Yuuya.  Even though he thought that he lost everything, he feels like he’s gained so much more.

 

He walks out to the kitchen to find Ruri and Sora giggling to each other about him.

 

“What’s so funny?”  Shun asks, his cheeks tinted red.

 

“I was telling Sora about how good of a big brother you are to me.”  Ruri beams. “And also about the time you got your wisdom teeth removed and you tried to propose to a bluejay.”

 

“I wish Ruri had pictures but she said that she was laughing too hard to get a good picture.”  Sora teases.

 

“I’m glad that you two are bonding over embarrassing stories about me.”  Shun sighs.

 

To be honest, he is glad that they’re bonding.  This is his family, his small family. This is his small family and this is their little home.

He watches them laugh with each other and he can’t help but join in on the laughter.  He feels so happy, for the first time since he woke up in this nightmare that felt like it would never end, he feels truly free and happy.

 

He’s glad that he finally made it home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another year, another Big Bang completed.
> 
> I'd like to thank the lovely mods who ran the Big Bang. The whole thing felt really smooth and they put up with my brain fog that makes it hard for me to understand a lot of the tasks I needed to do.
> 
> I'd also love to thank the wonderful artists that made really awesome creations for my fic. It's touching to have people pick your fic and work on making something special for it.
> 
> Of course, I want to thank my sweetheart too since they really help give me emotional support when I need it. They're also the one I went to with my ideas to talk through them all until I found something to write with.
> 
> And you all too! Thank you for reading to the end. It means a lot to know that you support me.
> 
> I had a hard time writing this and there were so many times when I cried and wanted to quit but I pushed and pushed myself to get through it. This is an idea I had for so many years and I wanted to make it come true. 
> 
> My confidence took a major hit with so many people trying to put me down for whatever reason or another. Heck, I even heard that someone criticised my fic last year because 'no one wants to read preyshipping'. Things like that do knock me down and I find it hard to get up but I tried so hard to and I made this... Something I feel scared to post but this is my effort to be better and to do better.
> 
> I wrote this fic for me... to prove to myself that I could do it. I did it. Here it is and here I am. Still pushing forward.
> 
> P.S. There's a hidden message in this fic that if you find it, you'll know something special.


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